Morning Hits: Injury Updates, Burrows and Johansen
Alex Burrows
Alex Burrows

  • Adam Kimelman of NHL.com: Canucks Henrik Sedin left last night’s game in the second period with a lower-body injury. Coach Willie Desjardins didn’t have an update after the game. Desjardins did say that they will call up a forward today.

    “I’ve been aware of it for a little bit,” he said. “Hopefully he’ll have a good night and we’ll see where he is .”

  • TSN: Maple Leafs goalie Garret Sparks left last night’s games with a lower-body injury and forward Nick Spaling left with an upper-body injury.

    “It looks like they’re long term,” Babcock said.

  • Joe Smith: Lightning Jon Cooper said that Erik Condra will be a game-time decision tonight. Ondrej Palat and Jonathan Drouin won’t be playing this weekend.
  • Aaron Portzline: Blue Jackets defenseman Jack Johnson missed last night’s game with an upper-body injury.
  • Dave Vest: Coyotes Martin Hanzal and Zbynek Michalek missed last night’s game with lower-body injuries.
  • Erik Erlendsson: Lightning’s Joel Vermin will be out six to eight weeks after having hand surgery.

Notes from around the league …

  • Frank Seravalli of TSN: Former NHLer Patrick O’Sullivan said that Alex Burrows was the only player to taunt him about the physical and emotional abuse that O’Sullivan suffered as a child.

    “Burrows (was the) only guy who said he wanted to hurt me like my father did,” O’Sullivan tweeted on Thursday. “(That’s) why I can’t stand him.”

    Burrows admitted he made some remarks to O’Sullivan.

    “I apologize if I offended him back then. I did say some stuff that may now, looking back … I could see how it would’ve offended him, like a lot of things I said back in the day,” Burrows said. “I read his story on The Player’s Tribune. It’s tough to see.”

    “At the time, I believed in whatever it took stay in the league,” Burrows said. “In the heat of the moment, especially when I first came in, I was playing six or seven minutes a night on the fourth line. I wanted to help any way I could. And if I could get one guy off his game, get in someone’s kitchen, I was willing to do it to help our team and maybe get on the power play.

  • Aaron Portzline: Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella on Ryan Johansen: “He’s an important guy to our organization. This is a reset for him, in understanding what we’re looking for, not just in the points but in the play. You can’t look at it as a punishment; it’s part of the process for him.”
  • Aaron Portzline: Blue Jackets Ryan Johansen on being a healthy scratch “It’s probably been brewing for a while. But since the last game, in Dallas I made a few mistakes, (stuff) we’ve been going over as a team, things we have to erase from our game. Full responsibility. My fault. I’m going to use it as a positive and take this day to watch the guys and realize that I don’t want this to happen again.”