Blue Jackets hit by injury bug to start the season
The Columbus Blue Jackets are getting threadbare at forward. Already missing Nathan Horton and Boone Jenner, the Blue Jackets will be without centre Brandon Dubinsky for the next six weeks after abdominal surgery.
Coach Todd Richards said at Wednesday’s practice that Dubinsky had surgery earlier in the day.
Dubinsky had 16 goals and 34 assists a year ago as one of the leaders on a young Blue Jackets team that made the postseason for only the second time in the franchise’s 13 years. He was injured during a Monday practice.
Richards said Dubinsky’s absence would provide an opportunity for several players to get more playing time, including rookies Marko Dano, Michael Chaput and Alexander Wennberg.
Columbus opens the season at Buffalo tonight.
Subban expects criticism to continue
P. K. Subban knows he’s under the microscope playing for the Montreal Canadiens. After signing a $ 72- million, eight- year contract, the star defenceman doesn’t think much will change in that respect.
“I don’t think ( the microscope) can get any bigger,” Subban said. Subban is ready for criticism to continue. Just not from Habs fans.
“I don’t ever remember getting scrutiny from the fans,” Subban said Wednesday before the Canadiens played the Maple Leafs in Toronto. “The fans have always been supportive. Now as far as critics go, everybody has critics. But the fans have never been ( critics) of me. I think they’ve been only supportive and I hope that continues.”
While the spotlight is on Subban and will remain there, he’s at least trying to spread it around.
“It’s not just me out there,” he said. “We have a wealth of veteran players on our team, a wealth of talent in this organization that’s going to help us win hockey games. It’s not just about one player.”
Leafs must forge identity: Shanahan
Brendan Shanahan wants the Maple Leafs to “own the puck,” but he’ll wait and see how the team’s identity develops over his first season as president.
Shanahan said he encouraged players to “write their story” individually and as a team. One thing Shanahan wants the Leafs to do better is hold onto the puck. They had the worst possession statistics in the NHL in 2013- 14.
Minutes after coach Randy Carlyle said qualifying for the playoffs was one way for the Leafs to consider this season a success, Shanahan said the message to fans shouldn’t be in words but in actions.
That was Carlyle’s message to his players, too.
“There was a lot of time and effort put in over the course of the summer months to try to establish a template in which we would expect our players to play to,” he said. “Now it’s time to apply that.”