The Carolina Hurricanes announced today that versatile center Jordan Staal finally has a timetable for his return. In what is bound to be a tough bit of news to swallow for Canes fans, it's looking like Staal will be out an extended period of time.
After initial reports were unable to offer a return date, the Hurricanes are now reporting that Staal will require surgery to repair a fractured fibula in his right leg, and will miss somewhere between three and four months.
Staal originally suffered the injury during a preseason contest against the Buffalo Sabres. He got tangled with Buffalo defenseman Josh Gorges, who landed on him awkwardly.
"It was one of those plays, where as soon as I landed on him, I heard him scream. I knew right away something must've hurt him," Gorges told the Buffalo Hockey Beat. "I mean, he's a pretty tough guy. A guy like that doesn't lay on the ice for nothing. I knew something was wrong right away. I was kind of on his back side. The ref came to me and told me it looked pretty ugly. It's kind of one of those scary plays."
Staal had not missed a single game to this point in his Hurricanes career after being traded from Pittsburgh two seasons ago.
The injury has the team reeling, and searching for ways to fill the void his absence has created.
"I'm concerned, for sure," head coach Bill Peters said after the game against Buffalo. "He's a big part of what we're trying to do here."
Hurricanes captain and Jordan's older brother Eric said replacing his younger sibling would require a group effort.
"We're going to have to do it collectively," Eric said. "It's not going to be one person because there's not many that can do what he does. He's a big, big man that's tough to play against. We're going to have to have other guys step up collectively to play those minutes and gain some experience from that."
Peters tried to remain optimistic despite his team's glaring lack of center depth.
"It opens up opportunities for various players," he said after practice on Wednesday. "We need someone to take his minutes on the power play. We need somebody else to take his minutes on the PK. We'll probably need Jay Mac (McClement) to take a lot more D-zone draws than we originally thought, but you know what? We have enough guys, and if we have the mindset that we can do it by committee, we'll get the job done."
Replacing a second-line center and a player who sees big minutes on both the power play and penalty kill is rarely an easy feat. In a big season for the Hurricane franchise - they recently became property of a new ownership group who decided to keep the current core intact for this season - this is a blow that will leave Staal and the team hurting.
"It's a tough pill for him right now, but you have to rebound and pick yourself back up," Eric said. "He'll do that, and we'll do that as a team."
The Hurricanes announced that Staal successfully underwent surgery today.
