Almost every team in the league has suffered some sort of debilitating injury in the last week, so much so that if you built a team from the NHL injured list, you’d have a Stanley Cup favorite.
This past week has been absolutely brutal for all 31 teams around the NHL, as the injury bug has mercilessly been spread throughout every locker room. Star players are going down left and right with various injuries, and out for various numbers of time. Some day to day with illnesses, while others are gone for months at a time.
Looking at just the past 48 hours alone , there have 16 different players all announced to miss at the very least the next game with some form of injury or illness.
The Metropolitan division alone has been borderline ransacked with injuries the worst. Sidney Crosby has been listed as day-to-day with a lower body injury for the Penguins. Evgeny Kuznetsov, TJ Oshie, and Braden Holtby all went down with upper-body injuries in the span of 12 hours for the Capitals.
Columbus will lose both Sergei Bobrovsky and Artemi Panarin to illness for a matchup against the Florida Panthers. The Devils lost both Nico Hischier and Brian Boyle to upper-body injuries. Casey Cizakis and Andrew Ladd are out long-term for the Islanders, and the Rangers lost Pavel Buchnevich for several weeks to top it all off.
For perspective on just how many good players are going to be missing time, if you took every player placed on injured reserve in just the last week alone, put them on the same team, and built a lineup, it would look a little something like this.
Forwards
Artemi Panarin (illness) – Sidney Crosby (upper body) – TJ Oshie (upper body)
Tomas Hertl (lower body) – Evgeny Kuznetsov (concussion) – Viktor Arvidsson (broken thumb)
Zach Parise (illness) – Nico Hischier (lower body) – Pavel Buchnevich (broken thumb)
Andrew Ladd (right leg) – Brian Boyle (lower body) – Patrick Eaves (upper body)
Defense
PK Subban (upper body) – John Klingberg (upper body)
Zdeno Chara (knee) – Cam Fowler (facial fracture)
Brett Pesce (lower body) – Anton Stralman (undisclosed)
Goalies
Sergei Bobrovsky (illness)
Andrei Vasilevskiy (foot fracture)
Braden Holtby (upper body)
I’d feel pretty comfortable dropping around $100 on the NHL Injured Reserve to win the 2019 Stanley Cup, if only they weren’t injured. It’s got just about everything needed for a deep playoff run. Elite depth in all categories, multiple top 20 players in the league, young talent, veteran leadership and arguably three of the top five goalies in the world.
Keep in mind, this lineup is limited by players injured in just the last week alone. If you push it to the beginning of November there could be players like Brock Boeser (groin), Erik Haula (knee), Brayden Schenn (undisclosed), Antti Raanta (lower body), and so forth.
Even despite the unprecedented bizarre stretch of injuries over the last several weeks, a few teams have managed to stay healthy. The Buffalo Sabres, Colorado Avalanche, Florida Panthers, and Toronto Maple Leafs are the only teams that have gone unscathed during November. Only time will tell if their luck can continue, and if everybody else’s can turn around.