Blue Jackets’ Erik Gudbranson leaves game with upper-body injury
The Columbus Blue Jackets announced that defenseman Erik Gudbranson will not return to Monday’s game against the Los Angeles Kings.
INJURY UPDATE: #CBJ defenseman Erik Gudbranson (upper body injury) will not return to today's game vs. the Kings.
Gudbranson appeared to sustain the injury late in the first period of the game. He was entering the corner of the Blue Jackets’ defensive zone to retrieve a dumped puck when Artemi Panarin hit him hard into the boards. Gudbranson was down for a while before getting up, angrily talking to one of the referees, and then skating to the bench and going to the dressing room. He did not return for the second period, and Columbus confirmed his absence from the game at the start of the third period.
Gudbranson left the game with two shots and one hit in 5:02 of ice time, with the Kings up 2-1 at the time of his departure.
The Blue Jackets are back in action on Tuesday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, so an update on Gudbranson’s injury should be expected before the game, at the very least if it’s enough for him to miss action.
Gudbranson has already missed 41 games this season, including 37 to a hip injury, so health has been a significant concern for him this season. When healthy, he’s struggled at both ends of the ice with one goal and two assists for three points in 20 games and a 0.026 5v5 regularized adjusted plus-minus 5v5 expected goals against per 60 minutes.
With Gudbranson out of the lineup, his defense partner, Dante Fabbro, has been rotated into the top four, generally playing with Zach Werenski and Ivan Provorov.
Should Gudbranson be required to miss Tuesday’s game, either Jake Christiansen and Egor Zamula will draw into the lineup in his place. Zamula played in Saturday’s 5-4 loss to the Utah Mammoth, only drawing out of the lineup due to the return of Dante Fabbro, and has played more than Christiansen recently, so he would appear to be the likely candidate.