Following the team’s first practice in Charlotte since returning from Canada, coach Jeff Daniels said Monday that team scoring leader Chad LaRose and defenseman Keegan Lowe will likely miss a significant chunk of games over the last month and a half of the regular season. Each player picked up an injury during the team’s journey through Toronto and Hamilton last week.
“There’s no timeline, but they’re both going to miss some time,” said Daniels. “It’s nothing day-to-day, it’s probably more week-to-week.”
In LaRose, the Checkers lose a key player in all situations. The 32-year-old veteran still leads them in points (31), goals (16), power-play goals (six), power-play points (eight), shorthanded points (four) and shots on goal (144) despite missing each of the last three games.
Ever since the Checkers lost then-scoring-leader Greg Nemisz for the remainder of the season way back in early December, LaRose had been serving as an alternate captain in his stead. With captain Michal Jordan in the NHL, perhaps for the remainder of the season, existing alternate Ben Holmstrom and Kyle Hagel each wore an “A” during Saturday’s game in Hamilton.
For the time being, LaRose’s NHL comeback bid will also be put on hold at a somewhat unfortunate time. With the season winding down, the possibility for a late-season return to the team for which he played all 508 of his NHL games may have increased, especially given his play over the second half of the season.
“You look at where he was from opening weekend to where he was (before the injury), it’s night and day,” said Daniels of LaRose, who scored 12 goals and 20 points in his last 26 games. “He had lot more confidence with the puck, was making plays and just doing those little things that take a while to get back when you take some time off. Without a doubt, he was trending upward.”
The injury occurred during a practice last Tuesday in Toronto.
“It was a freak thing,” said Daniels. “It does happen, but you hate to see it.”
Lowe’s injury that occurred Friday in Hamilton is another hit on a blue line that had has now lost a trio of players – Ryan Murphy, Michal Jordan and, as of Monday, Rasmus Rissanen – to the NHL. Should none of those players return in time for Wednesday’s game, the Checkers will likely need to add another player from the ECHL ranks to join recent tryout signing Mike Cornell.
“We always talk about who’s going to step up and take advantage of an opportunity, and he did that without a doubt,” said Daniels of Lowe, who earned a career-high three points and first-star honors in a win over Iowa at Time Warner Cable Arena two weeks ago.
“He was playing in all situations, getting up ice and trying to be that second wave of the offense and feeling really good about his game, as he should. He was also bringing an element of leadership that he’s capable of doing and it will be another big loss for us.”
Though Monday’s trade deadline was quiet in Carolina (Rissanen’s recall was the Hurricanes' only transaction of the day), the Checkers’ parent club was able to swing three trades in the week prior involving Jiri Tlusty, Andrej Sekera and Tim Gleason. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, none of those had a direct impact on the Checkers, with players traded away having ready replacements on a relatively healthy NHL roster and no AHL-ready prospects coming back in return.
