East Notes: Murray, Zadina, Lightning, Lindberg

The Blue Jackets have been without defenseman Ryan Murray for the past three weeks and it doesn’t appear that a return is on the horizon.  Speaking with Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch, GM Jarmo Kekalainen indicated that he is hopeful that the 25-year-old would be able to return this season.  Before this latest upper-body injury which is being re-evaluated on a week-to-week basis, the oft-injured Murray had actually stayed healthy through the first 56 games of the year along with a career-high 29 points.  With Columbus struggling considerably following their trade deadline pickups, they could certainly use Murray’s 21-plus minutes a night on the back end but they’ll have to play without him for a while yet.

More from the Eastern Conference:

• The Red Wings plan to return winger Filip Zadina to the minors before he reaches the ten-game mark this season, notes Ted Kulfan of The Detroit News. The 19-year-old has held his own in five games since being recalled but while he could certainly benefit from remaining in Detroit down the stretch, sending him down before he reaches that threshold means that he wouldn’t burn the first year of his entry-level deal this season.
• The Lightning will be without a pair of regulars as the team announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Dan Girardi is dealing with a lower-body injury while winger Adam Erne is dealing with an upper-body issue. Both players are listed as day-to-day.  Tampa Bay has enough healthy forwards to cover Erne’s absence without requiring a move from the minors while blueliner Jan Rutta was brought up last night to give them six available defenders for tonight’s game against Detroit.
• While Senators center Oscar Lindberg has been productive since joining the team from Vegas, he told Postmedia’s Ken Warren that he hasn’t given any thought about potentially re-signing with the team. The pending UFA has 15 points in 41 games between the two teams this season and likely will have difficulty matching or surpassing his current $1.7MM AAV on the open market unless he gets on a big run offensively between now and the end of the season.