News and Notes: Bieksa Okay; Horvat to Debut; Ference Suspended
By Rhys Jessop
9 years agoIt was a fairly busy morning as far as Canucks news goes. The injury situations of Kevin Bieksa and Tom Sestito were updated, Jim Benning announced when Bo Horvat will make his NHL debut, and NHL Player Safety ruled on the Andrew Ference hit on Zack Kassian.
Read past the jump for the latest rumblings from around Canucks-land.
- Kevin Bieksa appears to have dodged serious injury after taking a puck to the eye last night, and is listed as day-to-day:
- GM Jim Benning confirms that Bieksa will travel with the team on their upcoming road trip. He also describes the injury as “blood in and around the eye” and “no fracture to the orbital bone.”
- Here is the play Bieksa was injured on:
- While Bieksa hasn’t been fantastic so far this year, losing him would be a serious blow to an already thin defense core. Fortunately, Ryan Stanton is ready to return to game action. Frank Corrado, who has 1 goal on 12 shots and a -2 in 5 AHL games this year, is also an option to be recalled.
- The injury to Tom Sestito is more significant as he’s out indefinitely with a lower body injury:
- Sestito was seen on crutches after last night’s game.
- Bo Horvat will draw into the lineup in Sestito’s place, though he will likely centre either the third or fourth line.
- We touched briefly on Horvat’s possible debut yesterday. Here’s what I wrote:
We expect that Horvat will be a good middle-6 centre in his prime, but he’s still just 19 years old. He’s very likely not close to that right now, and I have a tough time seeing him bring more to the table than Brad Richardson or Linden Vey in these next 9 games. Outside of guys that are the absolute cream-of-the-crop, it’s pretty rare that 19-year olds make an immediate impact in the NHL, especially in the faceoff dot and defensive end of the rink – the two areas we’re told that Horvat excels.
- Finally, Andrew Ference has been suspended for 3 games for his check to the head of Zack Kassian:
- You can read what we thought of the hit in our postgamer from Saturday night.
- Mike Ribeiro was also assessed a checking to the head penalty last night for a hit on Shawn Matthias, however I would be surprised if he received a call from the NHL. Ribeiro didn’t charge at Matthias, didn’t leave his feet, and Matthias was uninjured on the play:
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