Another day, another player out for the 2014 Olympic Games.
Yesterday it was Henrik Sedin and Marian Gaborik. Today it’s Tampa Bay Lightning and Finland forward Valtteri Filppula, who left last night’s game against the Maple Leafs with what has been revealed as a fractured right ankle. The injury is expected to keep Filppula out for three weeks.
The 29-year-old Filppula was on pace to have his best statistical season, scoring 20 times and assisting on 21 other tallies in 56 games. Filppula did have a 23-goal, 43-assist season back in 2011-12 with the Red Wings, but that came over the full 82-game campaign.
The good news for Filppula is that the two-week break means he may not miss a lot of NHL time, which is also good news for a Lightning squad that is 4-5-1 in their last ten. The bad news is obvious- Filppula was a game away from representing Finland in the Sochi games. He was part of the 2010 team that won bronze in Vancouver.
A replacement has not yet been named by Team Finland. They may need more than one unfortunately as the Star Tribune reports Minnesota Wild Center Mikko Koivu will also miss the games with a broken ankle he sustained on January 4. It would have been Koivu's third Olympics- he received Bronze in '10 and was part of the squad that won Silver in '06.
In other Olympic injury news, after rumors pegged center Mikael Backlund as the replacement for Henrik Sedin, Team Sweden instead named Washington Capitals forward Marcus Johansson to the team. The 23-year-old Johansson has scored seven times and assisted on 29 others in 58 games this season. Here’s what Sean Gentille said about Johansson a few weeks ago when he was considered an option to replace Johan Franzen:
On the other end of the spectrum is Johansson, who plays on a line with Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom and, against all odds, has one even-strength goal on 54 shots this season. That, as noted by Japers Rink, is more bad luck than anything, and the Caps as a whole struggle at 5-on-5. Johansson is certainly productive on the power play (six goals).
Advanced metrics like Backlund a bit more than Johannsson but neither is going to provide what a healthy Henrik Sedin could.