Patrik Nemeth’s Gone; What’s Going To Happen Now?
By Josh Clark
The Dallas Stars organization announced today that defenseman Patrik Nemeth is going to miss the remainder of the regular season due to a laceration in his right arm. They said he could be ready for the postseason, should the Stars make it, but that he is done for the regular season.
If you missed it, the injury happened on Saturday night when the Dallas Stars lost 6-5 in overtime to the Philadelphia Flyers at the American Airlines Center. Only :53 seconds had transpired when Patrik Nemeth went for a check to knock RJ Umberger off of the puck. Umberger sent the puck up the ice and grabbed onto Nemeth as he was finishing the check, and the two tumbled towards the ice with Nemeth on top. Umberger landed on his back with his skates in the air and as Nemeth’s jersey slipped down his right arm, his forearm met Umberger’s skate, creating a deep cut near his wrist.
Here’s the video clip, if you have not already seen it:
Nemeth had surgery on Sunday, mere hours after the injury, and Ruff said that the cut was very severe. “When I say severe, that’s probably an understatement,” Ruff said. ” First and foremost, for his sake, I hope it’s a full recovery.”
Nemeth played with the Stars after Brenden Dillon’s injury at the end of last season and gained valuable playoff experience from it. After the Dallas Stars’ elimination, he went back down to the Texas Stars of the AHL and played well in their Calder Cup run, including scoring the game-winning goal against the St. John’s Ice Caps in the overtime of Game 5 to clinch the Stars first ever Calder Cup. He is a promising young talent and we can only hope that this injury will not demobilize or handicap his current skills in any way.
Nemeth had started every game for the Dallas Stars so far this season and had acquired zero points, a plus-one rating, and two penalty minutes. Though he was not hot on the stat sheet, the 22-year-old played a very balanced defensive game, playing the puck well in his own zone and performing as a massive, physical force in the Stars zone. Losing Patrik Nemeth is no doubt a major shot to the Stars blue line which had been performing better than most expected up until Nemeth’s injury.
The Dallas Stars will now rely on Jamie Oleksiak to fill the void. Oleksiak has played one game so far this season with the Dallas Stars, being against Nashville where he accumulated 14:30 of ice time and not much else. Oleksiak was the Dallas Stars seventh-man and filled in as the defensive scratch mainly until this injury.
The Dallas Stars also covered the now-open scratch spot by calling Jyrki Jokipakka, who had an excellent preseason with the Stars, up from the Texas Stars. It is a possibility that Jokipakka and Oleksiak could share some time on the ice, especially while waiting for the injured Sergei Gonchar to return.
Once Gonchar has recovered from taking a puck to the ankle, which he did back on September 30th in the preseason finale against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Stars will likely send Jokipakka back to the minors and Oleksiak will once again retain the position as the scratched defenseman. Gonchar is expected to be back in the next 1-3 weeks and will be performing for the first time of the 2014-2015 regular season, though most fans would rather leave him out the rest of the year. Gonchar had a very sad year in 2013-2014 with the Stars and is entering the last year of his contract at the age of 40.
But for tomorrow’s matchup against Vancouver, the Dallas Stars defense is shaping up to look like this:
Kevin Connauton – Jamie Oleksiak
Jokipakka could earn his way up to the sixth defense spot, but for tomorrow Oleksiak will more than likely get his name on the starting lineup.
Quick note: Congratulations are in order for Tyler Seguin who was announced as the NHL’s First Star of the Week, including 8 points and a hat trick to prove his worthiness!
Do you like the Stars chances of holding up now that Nemeth is gone?
Leave your comments and questions below, and as always, thanks for reading! Go Stars.