Patrick Kane suffered an undisclosed upper body injury Friday in the overtime win against the Tampa Bay Lightning and won’t be available Sunday afternoon against the Edmonton Oilers (3 p.m, FanDuel Sports Network).
“He’ll continue to be evaluated,” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said. “We’ll have an update on him as we go forward.”
Kane was slow getting up after a hit late in the game and didn’t play in the overtime.
McLellan said Lucas Raymond (upper body) is still day-to-day. That’s important because Raymond’s status will play a significant role in determining how McLellan deals with Kane’s absence. Kane is off to a strong start with five points in five games.
“I think (Raymond’s) getting closer,” McLellan said. “…We stayed out, did a little extra. So we’ll see how he feels after practice and in the morning.”
If Raymond can play, he would return to the top line with Dylan Larkin and Emmitt Finnie. He would also come back to the power play unit. (The PP wasn’t the same without him). Perhaps, Mason Appleton, who has been playing for Raymond, could move to Kane’s spot with Alex DeBrincat and Marco Kasper. They could choose to leave James van Riemsdyk, on the power play. This time he would be replacing Kane, not Raymond.
Berggren Back in Lineup?
If Raymond can’t play, the line juggling is more complicated. Jonatan Berggren would enter the lineup, but not necessarily in Kane’s spot
McLellan’s decision to play Gibson seems to be a desire to get two goalkeepers playing well. McLellan repeated that he didn’t believe Gibson played poorly in the 5-1 loss to Montreal in the opener. After beating Tampa Bay 2-1 in overtime Friday, Gibson even said he wasn’t on top of his game against Montreal.
“I don’t know if I’ve completely misread this situation,” McLellan said. “I don’t think John Gibson lost his confidence. I don’t think that he was horrible. I think that our team was awful. Night one, our team was. And then Telbs went on a good run. Gibby came back. He looked confident last night. He played, made some tremendous saves. “