Seriously, he is a hockey player, and a damned good one for the Minnesota Wild, as is Matt Hendricks - unfortunately both of them took lower body injuries for the team in Tuesday night's 5-1 rout of the Nashville Predators, Hendricks injured stepping in the path of a Shea Weber blue line rocket and Eberle blindsided by Ryan Ellis.
Neither is expected to play on Thursday night after their run-ins with the Predators' defensemen.
“I know our penalty killers," coach Dallas Eakins said after Wednesday morning's optional skate. "and this is right across the league, that if you’re playing Nashville, you’re telling your killer up there that he (Weber) can’t get the puck,”
“And if he does, you have to be that first layer of defense, you have to block the shot. And there are guys looking at us, saying, ‘Can’t the guy in the net stop it? He’s got all the pads on.’ But those are sacrifices that are extremely important and are extremely important for our team, where we’re at as a team and how we’re trying to grow.”
Sacrifice? If you are stepping in front of a Weber shot, a blindfold and a cigarette should be standard issue.
The veteran centerman tried to continue, but the pain in the leg was just too much to overcome - not that Eakins is complaining. “Weber hit Hendy awfully hard,” Eakins said. “That shows Hendy’s mettle. He’s going to lay it on the line.”
And while Hendricks was forced to leave in the opening frame, Eberle managed to finish the game, potting two goals in the final frame playing on a bad right knee that he was seen walking around with an icepack attached to on Wednesday morning. There were reports that the Oilers' second-leading scorer would be having an MRI, but that plan has been nixed by the team for now.
"We don't feel there's a need for one now," Eakins told reporters. "Not saying it's never, but the misinformation in the twitter world is always quite amazing. But he tweaked his knee, there's no MRI scheduled and we're hopeful he won't be out very long."
Eberle and Hendricks join the notoriously flaky Nail Yakupov on the shelf at least for Thursday night, Yakupov dealing with an ankle injury that has had him in and out of the lineup for the past three weeks after taking some friendly fire off of the stick of teammate Justin Schultz.
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