Photo Credit: Marilyn Indahl/USA TODAY Sports

It seems likely that Vancouver Canucks forward Chris Higgins will start this hockey season on the shelf with a foot injury.

The hard-nosed two-way forward sustained a ‘lower-body injury’ in the club’s preseason opener against the San Jose Sharks on Monday night while blocking a shot off of the inside of his foot. He left the contest and didn’t return. 

At the club’s game-day skate on Tuesday, Higgins was spotted in a walking boot, which is never a good sign.

Personally, I blame Torts.

You can watch a .gif of the shot block here:

that Higgins is already feeling better, which is good news, but he’s also still being evaluated so who knows. Obviously the concern whenever a player takes a puck off of the inside of their skate is that they’ve sustained a stress fracture. It’s an injury that players sometimes play through in the postseason (Ryan McDonagh did so this past playoffs, and I believe Higgins himself did so during the 2010-11 playoffs), but usually it takes a player out of action for at least a little while. I’m not a doctor, obviously, so I won’t speculate any further.

If Higgins is indeed out of action for any length of time, that should make things pretty competitive and interesting in terms of the competition for a top-nine spot at Canucks training camp. Higgins was expected to play left wing on Vancouver’s third line this season while being a prominent penalty killer, but if he’s unable to start the year, that could open up a more prominent roster spot for the likes of Jake Virtanen, Nicklas Jensen, Brendan Gaunce, or Alexandre Grenier at even strength.