The season is not yet two weeks old and the Columbus Blue Jackets are already mired in injury woes.
As the Blue Jackets prepare to host the Minnesota Wild on Saturday, they received more bad news with young forward Kent Johnson suffering an injury in Thursday’s win over the Buffalo Sabres.
Johnson tumbled over teammate James van Riemsdyk early in the second period and left in obvious pain. It is the second consecutive game a Blue Jackets player was injured in a game after colliding with a teammate. Defenseman Erik Gudbranson was hurt in Tuesday’s home opener.
“For sure, there’s an element of, âWhat the heck’s going on?'” coach Dean Evason said. “On the other side of it, there’s not a thing we can do about it. What are we going to do, ask our guys never to get close to each other (on the ice)? Boone (Jenner) gets hurt in practice. Do we ask them not to work hard, not to play hard? It happens. Are we disappointed that we don’t have some people in our lineup? Sure, but we have people in our lineup, and each night, each day, we conduct ourselves the same regardless of who’s in our lineup.”
Jenner and fellow forward Dmitri Voronkov as well as No. 1 goaltender Elvis Merzlikins are also on the shelf due to upper-body injuries.
Regardless, the Blue Jackets, who kicked off the campaign with a 3-2 loss to the Wild, must carry on and build off a 6-4 win over the Sabres.
“It’s not ideal, but what are you going to do, feel sorry for yourself?” forward Cole Sillinger said. “Nobody else feels sorry for us, right? It’s an opportunity for guys to step up. … We can’t hang our heads. We have to dig in for each other.”
The Wild are back on the road again, and for an extended trip.
The Wild returned home for a couple of practices after Tuesday’s 4-1 road win over the St. Louis Blues — a victory capped by the empty-net goal scored by goaltender Filip Gustavsson. That win was the back half of a two-game trek.
Saturday’s clash kicks off five more road tilts, an 11-day trip that continues with a pair of clashes at the two Florida teams and then games against the two Pennsylvania clubs. When the trip is done, Minnesota will have played seven of its first nine games away from home.
“You can get a little bit of practice time on the road, a little bit of team bonding on the road,” coach John Hynes said. “We should have high energy levels for the games.”
The Wild have also received a much-needed boost in time for the trip, with forwards Joel Eriksson Ek (broken nose) and Marcus Johansson (undisclosed) both expected to return after missing their last game due to injury.
To top it off, the 2-0-2 club is still on a high after Gustavsson’s goal, making him the 15th goalie in history to score a goal and the third to net one on the power play.
“Coaches usually get mad if you try it with a one-goal lead and it becomes icing if you miss it, so up (3-1), if I get the chance, I’ll try it,” Gustavsson said.
