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The Injury Bug: What’s the latest on the health of Richardson and Kassian going into the playoffs?
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Thomas Drance
Apr 11, 2015, 18:40 EDTUpdated:
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The injury bug can be a Brad Marchand-level pest. 
Going into the playoffs the Vancouver Canucks’ vaunted forward depth has taken a hit with inconsistent but unquestionably dynamic winger Zack Kassian and ace penalty killer Brad Richardson out of the lineup indefinitely with  a variety of injuries. 
In an appearance on TSN 1040 late on Friday night the Province’s Canucks beat writer Jason Botchford shed some light on the respective health status of Kassian and Richardson. Let’s recap after the jump.
Zack Kassian
Kassian was playing some of the best hockey of his Canucks tenure when he sustained an undisclosed injury in mid-March. He’s now been out of the lineup for a full month.
According to Botchford Kassian is battling through a back injury, one that has rendered him unable to get out of bed on occasion.
(Kassian) was set to skate today, and it’s crazy to me that now Richardson is seen as possibly being longer-term than Kassian though.
Kassian has skated before, he skated when the Canucks were out on their last road trip, and they thought that maybe he could be getting closer. But that back, you can’t predict that back, and that’s why they’ve had him out indefinitely for a long time here.
He’s had mornings where he hasn’t been able to get out of bed. He started making progress, he was on the ice when the team was on the road trip, then he hit a wall, then he had to take a step back, then he was on the ice again. We’ll see how his back responds this weekend when he’s skating again.
I think the potential is there for him to take a significant step forward if everything goes okay, but I’m still not expecting him to be back in the lineup any time soon. Maybe game three? Maybe that seems plausible right now.
So that’s decidedly mixed news. On the one hand, Kassian’s injury has been way more severe than we understood previously, but at least he could be back before the possible elimination games in the first round. 

Brad Richardson

Richardson hasn’t been a regular in the Canucks lineup since he sustained a foot injury in mid-January. At first he wasn’t expected to miss much time, but it’s been 11 weeks, and he’s still far below 100 percent. 
He may yet return to play for the Canucks, but it won’t be as a healthy player explains Botchford:
Everyone is frustrated with this – the entire organization is frustrated. When the injury first happened they thought he would be out a week, that was January. He came back last month, he played a couple games, now he’s out again. Same injury.
The team is frustrated I can’t imagine how frustrated he is right now. The reality is, and he talked about this when he came back, is that it wasn’t something where he was going to be healthy until the summer time. And it’s probably something where he wasn’t going to be healthy for an entire calendar year.
Richardson’s presence has been sorely lack on a once elite Canucks penalty kill that has been significantly more permissive – though perhaps we haven’t noticed as much as we would have were it not for Eddie Lack’s stellar play the past seven weeks – since Richardson left the lineup.
The Flames don’t boast a particularly dangerous power play, and Nick Bonino, Bo Horvat, and Henrik Sedin have all been fine when counted on to log more shorthanded minutes, but Richardson is an elite 4-on-5 presence and the team is better when he’s in the lineup.
Listen to Botchford’s complete radio hit here.

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