Well this is great. This is juuuuust great.
Not only did the league decide not to suspend Nazem Kadri for a brutal, blindside hit on Daniel Sedin (yes, he hit him in the head; no, I don’t give a damn if he grazed Daniel’s shoulder first), and not only did the game against the Leafs devolve into spears, mismatched fights, and line brawls, but now Jannik Hansen is injured and on the IR.
What’s the injury? How did he get hurt? There’s no information on that just yet, but I do know who this hurts the most: the fans. Unless Hansen is, like, really badly hurt; then it definitely hurts him most.
Hansen has been one of the lone bright spots on the Canucks this season. Early on, he elevated Brandon Sutter and Markus Granlund to the point that they almost looked like top-six forwards. Then when he was reunited with the Sedins, he made them look like first-liners again.
He’s now tied for the team-lead in points, even if that’s not saying much when the Canucks have been shut out in literally a third of their games. But it’s no coincidence that when the Canucks finally broke out of their scoring slump, Hansen had the primary assist.
Hansen picked up another primary assist on Daniel’s goal that he scored while Kadri was trying to decapitate him. He took a hit himself making the pass to Daniel, a blindside hit from Morgan Rielly that had the Canucks bench up in arms and likely explains why Alex Burrows tried to impale him on his stick later in the period.
It’s possible that Hansen was injured on that hit—a delayed concussion or neck pain from having his head whipped around—or the injury could have come from when he fought Kadri a moment later, attempting to protect a star player that the NHL’s Department of Player Safety apparently doesn’t care about protecting.
Without Hansen, the Canucks might be in trouble. He’s second on the Canucks in ice time at even-strength and short-handed. He plays in every situation but the power play and, quite frankly, he should be playing there too. Drop Brandon Sutter from the first unit and put him there with Loui Eriksson, the Sedins, and Philip Larsen. I mean, after he comes back from his injury.
Honestly, “might be in trouble” is such a relative term. When it comes to results, the Canucks can’t get much worse, as they’ve lost eight straight. But when it comes to entertainment, losing the speedy, hard-working Dane will definitely hurt. With Hansen out, the Canucks will be even less fun to watch.
