Will injures to key players take their toll?

This season is hardly 3 weeks old and we have already seen some key players go down with long term injuries.  What will be interesting to watch unfold is how teams cope with their star players going down.  The Canadiens have lost All-Star blueliner Andrei Markov for 4-6 months and they are struggling out of the gate with a 3 wins -5 losses  record.  Montreal is a much better team with Markov in the line up and one has to wonder if their early season struggles have been compounded by the loss of their number 1 defenseman.

The Vancouver Canucks lost winger Daniel Sedin to a broken foot which is expected to keep him out of the line up for 4-6 weeks as well.  With a 3 wins -5 losses record to start, the Canucks will be hard pressed to replace Daniel’s production and it will probably show in the win/loss column.

The Boston Bruins got a double-whammy this week.  First they lost hard-nosed winger Milan Lucic to a broken finger and last night their leading scorer for the last three seasons , center Marc Savard went down with a broken foot.  Both players will be out of the line up for 4-6 weeks.  With the loss of 36 goal scorer Phil Kessel this summer to Toronto and these injuries putting key components of the team on the sidelines, it will be hard to imagine Boston overcoming their 3 win – 4 losses start to regain the top of the Eastern Conference podium.

The Penguins also have their own woes on the injury front.  Defenseman Sergei Gonchar is believed to have suffered a broken wrist last night and will be lost for an unspecified amount of time.  Only time will tell if the Pens have the depth in their system to overcome the loss of Gonchar.  They lost him for a significant amount of time last year as well and they never skipped a beat.

As always, roster depth will play a huge role on who will forge ahead through these difficult roster losses and who will fall to the wayside.  It is just one of the many things that keeps the NHL interesting to watch.

Greener \m/