Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Comeau and DiPietro Hurt on Monday

There was a bit of injury news stemming from the New York Islanders on Monday night, as the team continued a Western road swing in Calgary, taking on the Flames in the second game of the trip.

Before puck drop, Blake Comeau was a late scratch due to neck spasms and he will likely be questionable for the Islanders' next game, which doesn't actually go until Thursday night in Edmonton.

Comeau has been having a fairly decent season with the Islanders, considering where they are in the standings and who he has to work with.  In 36 games so far, Comeau has 8 goals and 13 assists, which had him ranked 169th in league scoring coming into Week Fourteen.  If he is to get back into the line-up soon, he should be able to surpass his 2010 numbers, 35 points in 61 games.

In the middle of the second period, starting goalie Rick DiPietro was under siege from Flames shooters, but managed to keep the puck out of the net, but not before feeling something go in one of his knees, having to leave the game with an injury, but the extent of the injury isn't quite known as of Monday morning.  Again, the Islanders don't play again until Thursday night, which may provide DiPietro with some time to get better again.

DiPietro has not had the best of luck this season, already dealing with some excess swelling in his knees this year and he's missed a great deal of time because of it.  DiPietro has only made 16 starts this season, going 6-6-4 in the process, but I'm sure there was hope that he would have figured into more games by the halfway point of the season, despite sharing the spot with Dwayne Roloson, who was traded on the weekend to Tampa Bay.

This injury has now potentially put the team's fortunes into the hands of Nathan Lawson or they may go out and pluck one of the available goalies who are out there, either via trade or the waiver wire.

ImplicationsComeau is only just a selection sheet player this season, although his scoring rank suggests that he could have been a decent candidate for being in the draft pool at some point this season, but I digress.  Comeau likely wasn't chosen at all in Box 21 and likely shouldn't be.

DiPietro was a waiver draft pick of Larry D.'s, who knew the risks of picking up a player like DiPietro and now there has to be some concern of what he'll actually get out of the former number one overall pick this season.  Larry currently sits in 9th spot in the standings after Monday night, 30 points out of the money and he has now lost one of his goaltenders.

Link to the Injury/News Page

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