The Blue Jackets' annual injury crisis has arrived early and carried over from last season, knocking three of their top six defensemen out of the lineup heading into the season-opener against the Buffalo Sabres on Oct. 1 at Nationwide Arena.
After blocking a shot in the final game of the preseason Sept. 26 in Detroit, Ivan Provorov (lower body) has joined Damon Severson (shoulder) and Dante Fabbro (upper body) on the shelf, and he'll miss the first games of his 10-year NHL career for something other than COVID-19 protocols.
"This guy, he's a warrior," Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness said. "He's just heartbroken that he's not playing, and it's
unreal. He would go through 20 doctors to just hopefully find one that would say, 'You can play,' but it's lower body, week-to-week, and he's heartbroken that he's not playing."
Provorov, 29, has played in 778 of 781 regular-season games since making his NHL debut in 2016-17 with the Philadelphia Flyers, missing only three games in 2021-22 due to COVID-19 protocols. He's never missed a playoff game, and once played a Game 6 for the Flyers in 2018 with a severe shoulder separation that took two months to heal.
"This guys just loves to play," Bowness said. "He's the ultimate team player and ultimate team warrior, so that's a tough one."
Adding Provorov's injury to the issues keeping Severson and Fabbro out is even tougher for the Blue Jackets, whose blue line is largely decimated before the season starts. Severson's recovering from shoulder surgery April 2, while Fabbro is out with an injury that occurred in the first preseason game.
Each of the three were slated to play in the top three pairings. Severson was skatingwith Zach Werenski on the top pairing prior to his injury last season, Provorov can toggle between the first and second pairings and Fabbro, who was tagged for third-pairing duty, can play on any of the three if needed.
Without them, Denton Mateychuk is skating with Werenski, handling the right point as a left-handed shooter, while newcomers Carson Soucy and Emil Andrae form the second pairing. The third pair is Jake Christiansen and Erik Gudbranson, who have plenty of experience playing together.
"I've talked to them all," Bowness said. "I said, 'Listen, you're not going to have the same partner every night, you're not going to be on the [same] side every time, you're going to be moving around.' That's just the challenge we face."
Bowness said Werenski and Mateychuk will log a high number of minutes until one or more of the injured regulars returns. He's also looking for the forward group to raise their defensive intensity.
"You're going to face adversity through this year," Bowness said. "Every team at some point this year will face adversity. We have to handle it better [than last season]. I don't think we handled that well last year, and that was part of our demise."
Dispatch Blue Jackets/Crew reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ivan Provorov injury leaves Columbus Blue Jackets' defense depleted
