Thursday, December 30, 2010

Pavelski Sits Out from Sharks Road Trip

A lower-body injury forced Sharks' forward Joe Pavelski to stay at home in San Jose, while his team took off on a brief road trip to the Midwest.  It's unclear as to where and when Pavelski suffered the injury this week, but he was unable to practice earlier on this week and that led to the decision of just staying home and rehabbing the injury.  Pavelski missed Wednesday night's game in Minnesota and will miss tonight's game in Chicago, but the coaching staff remains hopeful that he can re-join the team in Los Angeles for Saturday's New Year's Day tilt against the Kings.  Of course, no confirmation will be given until closer to game day.

In the game against the Wild on Wednesday night, it was one of those offensive games where Pavelski might have made a difference in a 5-3 loss, since he has 27 points (9 goals and 18 assists) in 36 games this season.  Pavelski currently ranks 5th on the team in pool scoring and is one of seven Sharks in the top 100 of pool scoring this season, currently ranked 80th.  It will be very interesting to see how the Shark deal without Pavelski in their line-up against the Blackhawks tonight.

ImplicationsIn the draft, Pavelski is another body that has been lost to Stuart this week, who has also lost the services of Martin Erat and Jonathan Toews recently, but he still has an 11-point buffer in his 6th place position over 7th place, so he should be able to hold on for a little while longer.  Losing three key forwards is not going to help his cause though, especially through the dog days of the season.

Link to the Injury/News Page

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