Thursday, December 16, 2010

Callahan Breaks Hand

The New York Rangers took a hit on Wednesday night, as Ryan Callahan left their game in the first period after blocking a shot, which ended up breaking his hand. In-game x-rays showed the break and the injury was announced while the game was still going on and now the team expects the gritty forward to miss upwards of six weeks with the injury.

The loss of Callahan comes in the same game that the Rangers had Chris Drury return from a broken finger, but Callahan is a player like no other on their team and the hole in the line-up he leaves behind is a big one.

In 32 games with the Rangers this season, Callahan has 10 goals and 13 assists, which is 2nd on the team in scoring among skaters and is a pretty good scoring pace for a 2nd/3rd line forward that is more gritty than he is finesse. Not only will his offense be missed, he is far and away the most physical player on the team, leading with 128 hits thus far.

ImplicationsThis really comes as a kick in the pants to Wes M., who picked Callahan up in the waiver draft, 3rd overall to replace an underachieving Tyler Bozak in Toronto. Wes only managed to snag 2 goals out of four games from Callahan since the waiver draft and now there is a good chance Wes won't see him again until just before the second waiver draft. Unlucky.

Wes currently sits in 18th spot in the standings, 49 points out of the money. For the second jersey prize, Wes currently stands in 11th place with 35 points in 10 days worth of action, already 18 points behind the leader there.

Link to the Injury/News Page

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