The news out of Vancouver last night was not good following a rough game against the New York Rangers. Canucks head coach Travis Green confirmed that Antoine Roussel suffered a season-ending knee injury when he collided with Brendan Lemieux, while young prospect Quinn Hughes will spend a week in a walking boot after being diagnosed with a “pretty good bone bruise” from blocking a shot at the end of his college season.
Lemieux ended up with a march penalty for a hit to the head, but Roussel’s injury occurred because his leg got trapped underneath him as he crumpled to the ice. Teammates needed to help the Canucks forward off the ice, and his season will come to an abrupt end. Roussel was actually having quite the year with a career-high of 31 points in 65 games, putting him fourth on Vancouver in scoring. He also easily leads the team in penalty minutes with 118, coming in only behind Evander Kane for the league lead.
Elias Pettersson was also involved in a dangerous play when Chris Kreider’s elbow swung around and hit the young Vancouver forward in the face. Kreider was given a game misconduct and Pettersson was taken for concussion testing, but did return to the game. The Rangers forward was also given a $5,000 fine for the incident, but did not receive a suspension.
While the Roussel news is obviously terrible for the Canucks, more fans will be focused on the Hughes news given the excitement around the young defenseman. Signed just a few days ago after his college season came to an end, the 19-year old was expected to get a chance to show what he can do down the stretch. Obviously there is still some time to get him into game action, but the Canucks will have to take things carefully and avoid any additional injury.
Get well soon, rooster!
Both of the Ranger majors/game misconducts were bogus.
Kreider slowed down and turned his back on Pettersson in order to avoid serious injury. How was he supposed to be able to see where Pattersson was when he had his back to him? Is he supposed to have eyes in the back of his head or what?
The Lemieux major was even more ludicrous: Roussel skated through the crease, had already lost his footing, and crashed into Lemieux. What was Lemieux exactly supposed to do in that situation? Total nonsense, inept officials. They ruined a perfectly good game after an interesting first period.
I completely agree with you in regards to Lemieux… Roussel was out of control, losing balance, and basically fell right into him. If Lemieux let’s him just fall on him, he’s probably taking out his knees. That one was a terrible call. But you couldn’t be further off on Kreider. As a player you are responsible for being in control of your body at all times. It doesn’t matter if you turn your back… that’s not an excuse for flailing all over the place, and throwing a spinning elbow to a guy’s chin. Honestly I think Kreider probably should have got a game for that, but he got lucky he only was fined.
Agreed on Lemieux. The Kreider one was definitely a penalty though. Debatable maybe if it should have been a major, but you have to have control of your elbows there. There is no reason it has to be swinging like that and i’m fine if he gets a game.