FANTASY FARE: Rough week for injuries, especially on defence
When our office head-to-head league flipped to the next game last Monday, I was quietly fist-pumping the fact that my opponent this week had lost Connor McDavid to a quad injury a couple of days earlier. But with the fantasy gods forever lurking, I should’ve known better than to even think I’d have an advantage. One night later, my No. 2 overall pick — Nikita Kucherov (McDavid was first) — left his game at Pittsburgh in the second period with a lower-body injury following what appeared to be a mild bump along the boards behind the net. McDavid was challenging teammate Leon Draisaitl for the NHL scoring lead before being hurt while Kucherov has had the most points of anyone the past month to rejoin the top 10. That is not the kind of production you replace off the waiver wire. Oh, and just for punitive measures, I then lost Kucherov’s teammate Anthony Cirelli (12 points in his past 13 games), also to an LBI in the same second period.
