The last thing the slumping San Jose Sharks need is one of their best players out of the lineup, but that's exactly what has happened.
Rookie sensation Tomas Hurtl will miss at least a month after taking a knee-on-knee hit from Los Angeles Kings' Dustin Brown late in the first period of the Sharks blowout loss to the Kings - Brown receiving a five minute major and a game misconduct, but escaped supplemental punishment by the league even though it appeared that Brown was targeting Hertl.
Hertl has done nothing but bring excitement and the spectacular effort since the beginning of the season with his four-goal night in just his third career game and he leads all rookies with 15 goals and 25 points in 35 games and was an early frontrunner for the Calder Trophy.
Sharks' General Manager Doug Wilson wasn't about to speculate as to how long Hertl would actually be out, but it has to be disconcerting when he had no trouble setting the time frame of at least a month - and scoffed when a reporter asked if the injury could be season ending, though he admitted that the knife was probably in the offing:
"Ask me in a week, or two or three - I think right now the prognosis is a month but we are prepared that it could be longer. How much longer, I don’t know. There are a couple of different things we’re looking at. I think the MRI shows something, and probably going in (surgically) at some point will probably reveal the rest. That’s probably what the process will be over the next week or so.”
Sharks' coach Todd McLellan has to be concerned about how to replace the offense that Hertl brought to the ice for a team that's lost six of their last eight.
http://www.sportsinjuryalert.com/2013/12/sharks-hertl-out-at-least-month-with.html
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