Hurricanes winger Sebastian Aho took a hit to the head from Flames defenseman Mark Giordano in their game this afternoon and was forced to leave the game. Unfortunately for Carolina, head coach Bill Peters told Michael Smith of the Hurricanes’ team website (Twitter link) postgame that they will be evaluating Aho for a potential knee injury as well as having him checked for a concussion. The timing of the injury is a tough one for the Finnish winger who had been on quite a run coming into this one with 14 points over his last ten games while he leads the team in scoring with 37 points. As for Giordano, he was assessed a match penalty on the play which not only saw him ejected from the game but also will result in a hearing with the Department of Player Safety.
More injury notes from around the league:
- Kings defenseman Jake Muzzin is nearing a return to the lineup but it is not yet known if he’ll receive the green light to play for their game tomorrow afternoon against San Jose, notes Jon Rosen of LA Kings Insider. Muzzin sustained an upper-body injury back on December 30th but tried to play through it for a couple of games before going on injured reserve. If he does get cleared to play, a roster move will need to be made as the recall of Jonny Brodzinski earlier today brought Los Angeles back to a full 23-man roster.
- Oilers center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins left Saturday’s game with what was speculated to be a head injury but TSN’s Ryan Rishaug reports via Twitter that there are no concussion concerns. Instead, he’s dealing with some bruising that the team is hopeful will have gone away by the time they’re off their bye week on Saturday. Although he has frequently been involved in trade speculation, Nugent-Hopkins has quietly put together a strong year, sitting third in Edmonton scoring with 31 points in 46 games.
- Rangers winger Kevin Hayes suffered a setback to the lower-body injury he tried to play through against the Islanders on Saturday, notes Newsday’s Steve Zipay. He has been ruled out of tonight’s game against Pittsburgh but head coach Alain Vigneault provided some reason for optimism, noting that “It’s not as bad as when it was first diagnosed”. Hayes, who scored in the game Saturday despite playing through the injury, has 18 points in 43 games so far this season.