Posted in Injuries, Phil Kessel No Comments January 12th, 2009
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse on the injury front
Just when you thought the offensive corps couldn’t get more banged up, Phil Kessel was diagnosed today with mononucleosis and was placed on IR. He’s expected to miss at least a couple of weeks and, as anyone who’s had mono before can tell you, that’s a conservative estimate. The team has weathered the losses of Marco Sturm (who may be done for the year) and Patrice Bergeron (who has no set timetable to return from his recent concussion) very well thus far, but the loss of Kessel…who leads the team in goals scored…seems destined to test them.
On the positive side, the timing is relatively good. The team has a solid lead over the rest of the Eastern conference and Kessel should be good to go by mid-February…well before the playoffs begin. Not only that, mono usually doesn’t cause any long term effects. For him, it’ll just be a matter of him getting his strength back.
