A couple of teams have lost important players due to injury. Chris Pronger will miss a month after knee surgery and Kari Lehtonen will miss at least three weeks with a groin injury.
Pronger already missed some time earlier this season, but in the games he's played, he has been quite good, as he has 12 points in 13 games. The Flyers have the players to manage without him, with guys like Kimmo Timonen and Matt Carle, although Philadelphia's strength lies on offense. Their bigger issue is Ilya Bryzgalov turning his play around, which should happen... eventually.
The Lehtonen loss is a bigger concern. Lehtonen had finally put his injury issues behind him last season, but now he is going to miss significant time again. He had been playing quite well, as he had a .926 save percentage in 19 games. Now, the Stars will probably have to rely on Andrew Raycroft in net for at least a few weeks. Dallas had gotten off to a better start than I expected, but Lehtonen was key to that, and now with him, Brendan Morrow, and Alex Goligoski out with injury long term, I think this could lead to a not insignificant slump for the Stars.
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