The Dallas Stars evened up their series against the Minnesota Wild last night, exciting the hometown crowd with seven goals (including a four-goal second period). That was possible without one of their best players after Joe Pavelski was knocked out of game one by a massive hit from Matt Dumba. Now, as the series shifts to Minnesota for the next two games, it appears as though they’ll still have to battle without the veteran.
Pavelski will not travel with Dallas, according to team reporter Mike Heika. Head coach Pete DeBoer said he hopes Pavelski can return this series but won’t be involved in the next two games at least.
Though he doesn’t always get the same amount of press as other stars, Pavelski’s performance for Dallas has been incredible. At age 38 this season, he scored 28 goals and 77 points in 82 games, breaking the 1,000-point mark for his career. In fact, with 1,001 in 1,250 games, his career is starting to look more like that of a Hall of Famer, despite rarely getting much attention as one of the league’s best players. He’s never won an individual trophy, but has played in 169 career playoff games, already good enough for 56th all-time. His 126 postseason points put him 53rd, tied with Maurice Richard.
Despite last night’s win, that’s a huge piece to pull out of the Dallas lineup for two critical road games.
having no Pavs really sucks.
Remains to be seen.
If he did travel with the team I’m sure he’d wonder In the wrong direction.
Gotta give you props Wilf. When you decided to quit attempting to make sense you went all in.
I’d be surprised if he returned in the first round. Concussions have taken guys out for long periods of time on many occasions, and that was as severe as I’ve witnessed in recent memory.
Look at Makar coming back and then taking another hit this season. Does the NHL really want all that attention again? This soon? Probably a poor choice to rush him back.
I remember when hockey helmets looked like leather jockstraps.