The curious case of Ryan Kesler continued Wednesday when John Tortorella announced his centre is out with a hand injury, but listed him as “day to day.”
Of course, “day to day” in Tortorella’s world could easily mean two to four weeks. And the thinking from plenty of people is, it does.
The coach did say if Kesler could play, he would.
In other words, this isn’t a day of rest. He’s only not playing because something is seriously wrong with that hand.
The injury is a devastating blow for the Canucks’ playoff chances, and would be even if he were to miss only the two games this week.
It also raises some tough questions for what went down in Russia.
Kesler injured the hand on Feb. 15, then played four more games, including the last one against Finland.
That was a game Team USA treated as meaningless. You know the routine. They came for the gold, and a bronze just wasn’t going to get them going.
Why not sit Kesler? At the very least, sit him once the gold was out of reach.
Ryan Kesler skates off the ice dejected as Canada celebrate their win in the men’s hockey semifinal. (Jean Levac/Postmedia News)
But Kesler played, then returned to Canada and can’t play for the Canucks.
The optics are rather distressing for a team that needs to win 14 or 15 games in the final 22 to make the playoffs.
If he’s not medically cleared to play today, how was he medically cleared four days ago?
It would seem the Canucks should have more of an issue with what went down in Sochi than Garth Snow and the New York Islanders, who were incensed that John Tavares injured his knee and will miss the rest of the season.
Tortorella wouldn’t bite, though, and only responded with “no sense in being frustrated.”
When people close to Kesler were asked this week why he was still playing in Russia with that injury, their response was:
“That’s Kes.”
And so is this.
He’s injured again — almost a year to the date it was announced he would be out indefinitely with a broken foot.
Some things never change.
