The Winnipeg Jets' Patrik Laine has a concussion, reports Tim Campbell, resulting from the hit in the third period of yesterday afternoon's game by Buffalo Sabres defenseman, Jake McCabe.Sorry I couldn't just embed the following video, there was no option to do so.
He will miss an undermined amount of games, as head coach Paul Maurice said there is no timetable for his return. Drew Stafford will take his spot on the top line with Mark Scheifele and Nikolaj Ehlers.
Now that the official "bloggy-information" part of this post is done, let me now speak like a worried fan.
This is going to suck huge.
The Jets weren't exactly burning the goal light out before Laine went down, now the answer to that from Paul Maurice is to insert Drew Stafford, a player with all of three goals this season, into the top line. Now, perhaps and hopefully Stafford will benefit from the young, speedy and talented Scheifele and Ehlers.
The Jets players are putting on the typical brave faces and talking about scoring by "committee."
Maybe Stafford's production will improve slightly from being in the middle of that offensive flare that Ehlers and Scheifele are known to create. Perhaps Brandon Tanev or Marko Dano would be a better fit, both in terms of skill set and speed.
But make no mistake, although Laine hasn't been scoring like he was when the season started, he is still a great playmaker and his contributions will obviously be sorely missed. Expect the Jets offensive production to diminish.
