{"id":60360,"date":"2019-10-31T21:45:50","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T01:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/?p=60360"},"modified":"2021-03-11T23:13:07","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T04:13:07","slug":"montreal-canadiens-jesperi-kotkaniemi-out-with-groin-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2019\/10\/31\/montreal-canadiens-jesperi-kotkaniemi-out-with-groin-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal Canadiens Jesperi Kotkaniemi Out with Groin Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/canadiens\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Montreal Canadiens<\/a> have announced that forward <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kotkaje01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jesperi Kotkaniemi<\/a><\/strong> is out for Thursday night&#8217;s contest against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/knights\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> due to a groin injury. Kotkaniemi is considered day-to-day.<\/p>\n<h2>Canadiens Jesperi Kotkaniemi Out Day-to-Day<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/j\/juliecl01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Claude Julien<\/a> confirms that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kinkake01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Keith Kinkaid<\/a> will get the start tonight in Vegas.<\/p>\n<p>Jesperi Kotkaniemi is out with a groin injury, so <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/suzukni01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nick Suzuki<\/a> will move to center and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/w\/wealjo01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jordan Weal<\/a> will enter the lineup.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/GoHabsGo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#GoHabsGo<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4FtSNkoDeR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/4FtSNkoDeR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Canadiens Montr\u00e9al (@CanadiensMTL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CanadiensMTL\/status\/1190055763265253376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 31, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> It appears Kotkaniemi injured himself during Wednesday night&#8217;s 4-1 win over the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/coyotes\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Arizona Coyotes<\/a>. He logged 13:23 minutes of ice time during the game and did not seem to leave the ice for any period of time. For now the forward will be considered day-to-day.<\/p>\n<p>In 12 games so far this season, Kotkaniemi has scored two goals and added one assist for three points.<\/p>\n<p>He has spent the majority of the season centring the Canadiens third line, as well as getting some time on the powerplay.<\/p>\n<p>Kotkaniemi was drafted by the Canadiens in the first round, third overall in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft.<\/p>\n<h3>What This Means for the Future<\/h3>\n<p>With Kotkaniemi out, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/w\/wealjo01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jordan Weal<\/a><\/strong> will draw back into the lineup. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/suzukni01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Nick Suzuki<\/strong><\/a> will take over the centre position on the third line. Weal was a healthy scratch for the Canadiens against the Coyotes while Suzuki has been playing right wing on the fourth line.<\/p>\n<p>In eight games this season, Weal has scored two goals and one assist.<\/p>\n<p>Suzuki has scored three goals and two assists in 12 games while playing on the fourth line. He has also been playing on the Canadiens&#8217; second powerplay unit.<\/p>\n<p>Suzuki will get a golden opportunity to play his natural position against the team that drafted him in 2017. He was the major piece coming over in the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/p\/pacioma01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Max Pacioretty<\/a><\/strong> trade and will certainly have some extra motivation going into tonight&#8217;s game to stick it to his former club.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"5mooiRC3QLN_xI966QCPXQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.ca\/detail\/1178415519\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'5mooiRC3QLN_xI966QCPXQ',sig:'vk6fJLgoLh2x_3hIUQXwkbAJ0v0CyFtaWI8zMy19NGU=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1178415519',caption: true ,tld:'ca',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Montreal Canadiens have announced that forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi is out for Thursday night&#8217;s contest against the Vegas Golden Knights due to a groin injury. Kotkaniemi is considered day-to-day. Canadiens Jesperi Kotkaniemi Out Day-to-Day Claude Julien confirms that Keith Kinkaid will get the start tonight in Vegas. Jesperi Kotkaniemi is out with a groin injury, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2506,"featured_media":60361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,6671,34],"tags":[2712,152,949],"class_list":["post-60360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canadiens","category-injuries","category-news","tag-jesperi-kotkaniemi","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-nick-suzuki"],"modified_by":"Colton Osmond, Dept Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2506"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}