Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson won’t skate at all this weekend due to the upper-body injury that has kept him out of training camp so far, reports Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link). That’s actually a step in the wrong direction as the veteran had been skating on his own earlier in the week. Head coach Mike Sullivan stated that the team will assess the plan for him early next week. At this point, it’s starting to look like the 34-year-old might not be available for the season opener which would be tough for them. While Karlsson wasn’t able to duplicate his 2022-23 season numbers with Pittsburgh last year, he still collected 56 points in 82 games while logging over 24 minutes a night which will be hard to replace, even on a short-term basis.
Other injury news from around the NHL:
- Wild winger Matt Boldy skated today for the first time since being injured last weekend, notes Michael Russo of The Athletic (Twitter link). Head coach John Hynes indicated that he anticipates that the 23-year-old should be able to get several full practices in before the regular season gets underway. Boldy is coming off a career-best 69 points in 75 games last season and will be counted to play a similar role as Minnesota looks to get back to the playoffs in 2024-25.
- The Maple Leafs hope to have blueliner Jani Hakanpaa skate with the main group next week, relays Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun (Twitter link). Toronto agreed to terms with the 32-year-old on the opening day of free agency but concerns over the state of his knee resulted in the agreement being cut to one year and getting registered more than two months later. Thus far, Hakanpaa had been skating with the minor league group, bringing into question his availability for the start of the season. If he’s able to get in some practices with the main squad and perhaps a preseason game, he could be cleared for opening night.
@Brian — Get ready to add Laine to the list. Cedric Pare channeled his inner Matt Cooke tonight.
You think it was intentional? It was tough for me to tell from the replay I saw.
No intention there were three players in that play
@itsmeheyhii & @goalieguy41 — I saw it as intentional, yes. More than a few commenters on the YT clip I watched thought so, as well.
There’ll always be some sort of bias towards hits like this. As much as you can say people are commenting it was intentional you’ll find an equal amount saying that it wasn’t. That’s what being a fan is all about. With that being said, I think this was just an accident. Pare didn’t aim his knee towards Laine’s. Pare tried to stand Laine up and Laine tried to split the defence and their knees collided. Both players fell to the ground but Laine was the one who took the brunt of it. Hopefully the injury isn’t as bad as it looked and a Laine has a bounce back year!
@osonvs — We’ll just have to agree to disagree. Neither of us can undo the play, so it’s a bit moot, unfortunately. What I do agree with you on, though, is the well-wishes for Laine and that this doesn’t keep him out most of the year.