Blue Jackets' Yegor Chinakhov out 'indefinitely' with ankle injury
PHILADELPHIA ― Another day, another long-term injury for the Blue Jackets to manage amid a season plagued by health issues.
This time, it’s second-year forward Yegor Chinakhov out “indefinitely” with an ankle injury that landed him on injured reserve Tuesday. The injury happened Monday on the second shift of the game in a 2-1 loss to the Dallas Stars at Nationwide Arena.
Chinakhov, 21, has contributed four goals, nine assists and 13 points in 30 games while working his way into a top-six role at left wing on the second line. That spot is now a gaping hole to be filled by a forward that coach Brad Larsen declined to reveal Tuesday in his morning media availability before facing the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center.
“It stinks to see a lot of our top-end players getting hurt,” said star forward Johnny Gaudreau, who signed a seven-year contract with the Blue Jackets last summer. “It’s (my) first year and I want to make an impact on this team and help the team as much as I can, and when you see things like that, it’s tough to watch. But it gives young kids opportunities to play in this league and it gives me an opportunity to meet a lot more faces around the organization.”
The Blue Jackets (10-19-2) will also be without goaltender Elvis Merzlikins, who won’t make his scheduled start while dealing with an illness. Rookie Daniil Tarasov will make his fourth straight start in net and handle his first games on back-to-back days. Tarasov, who made 32 saves on 33 shots Monday against the Stars, has a sizzling .932 save percentage in his past six appearances.
He’ll try to end the Jackets’ four-game losing streak.
Rookie forward Liam Foudy will draw into the lineup to replace Chinakhov, but it’s unknown where he’ll slot into the forward lines until pregame warmups. The Blue Jackets also lost captain Boone Jenner, the team's top center, Monday for up to four weeks with a fractured finger. They will face the Flyers without 11 players from their regular lineup, including nine on injured reserve plus Merzlikins and second-year center Cole Sillinger ― who didn’t make the trip to Philadelphia and is out day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
It’s a carbon copy of what happened to the Blue Jackets midway through the 2019-20 season, when nearly half the active roster went down within the span of a few weeks.
“That season was crazy,” said defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, a rookie in 2019-20. “That February, that was probably my first time in my career that we had like 10 guys who were just out with injuries and right now it feels kind of the same. It’s just so hard to see that and it seems like it’s happening really, really often. It’s kind of tough.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets lose Yegor Chinakhov 'indefinitely'
