Canes’ Mrazek, Reimer, Pesce have ‘longer term’ injuries, Brind’Amour says
The Carolina Hurricanes may be without injured goalies Petr Mrazek and James Reimer, and defenseman Brett Pesce, for an extended period of time, Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said Monday.
“I don’t have updates on how long they’ll be out but nobody, I would say, is short term,” Brind’Amour said. “Longer term, really, for all of them.”
All three players were injured Saturday in a road game against the Toronto Maple Leafs won 6-3 by the Canes. Mrazek suffered a concussion when he collided with the Leafs’ Kyle Clifford as he left the net to play the puck, Brind’Amour said.
Reimer, the starter, went out in the first period with a lower-body injury after Canes defenseman Jaccob Slavin was shoved into him.
Brind’Amour made his comments after the morning practice at PNC Arena. Later in the afternoon, general manager Don Waddell said he did not expect Mrazek or Reimer to be out long term -- “Weeks at most,” he said. Waddell said Mrazek has a neck injury but was symptom free in terms of a concussion. Mrazek does remain in the concussion protocol.
“Those things, you don’t know,” Waddell said. “It might linger around for five days, might linger on for 10. But we don’t think it’s long. He’s got no history of it.”
Pesce hurt his right shoulder attempting to check Leafs center John Tavares along the boards. Pesce had shoulder issues late in the 2017-18 season but did not have surgery.
The Canes on Sunday recalled goalies Alex Nedeljkovic and Anton Forsberg from the Charlotte Checkers, their AHL affiliates. Both were at the Canes practice Monday and Waddell said the Canes did not seriously pursue a trade for goaltending help Monday.
“We felt very comfortable these two can carry the load until Petr and (Reimer) are back,” Waddell said. “We talked about it but we weren’t going to spend many assets to try to get somebody to help us over the next few weeks.”
Nedeljkovic and Forsberg have teamed up well in keeping the Checkers, the 2019 Calder Cup champions, in playoff contention in the AHL. Brind’Amour is hoping for the same as the Canes fight for playoff position in the Eastern Conference.
“Absolutely it’s exciting,” Nedeljkovic said after practice. “It’s another playoff battle that the guys are in and another chance to show what I can do. You have to be ready for whenever the time comes. You never know when it’s going to be, whether it’s going to be a regular call-up or two guys go down the same night and the emergency backup goes in.”
Brind’Amour did not name a starter for the game Tuesday against the Dallas Stars. Forsberg has played 45 NHL games but none since the 2017-18 season with the Chicago Blackhawks.
“Nothing changes the way we play,” Forsberg said. “We’ve just got to take what we’ve done down there (in Charlotte) and play the same way up here and not think about it. “
This story was originally published February 24, 2020 at 2:02 PM.
