New York Islanders Injury News 2015: Jaroslav Halak Placed on IR After Upper Body Injury
The most common injury in professional hockey is the upper-body variety, where players are hit and suffer from minor to major ones, with some even getting as serious as having to miss the entirety of a season.
That would be the expected case for New York Islanders goalie Jaroslav Halak, who was placed by his team on the injured reserve (IR) on Sunday after what appears to be another case of upper-body injury. Halak is the Islanders' top goalkeeper with a 2.09 goals-against average and a couple of shutouts in a total of 20 games in the season. He also comes with a record 10-6-3.
The 30-year-old veteran is currently in his second year with New York; he compiled a record of 38-17-4 with 2.43 GAA, along with six shutouts last season. Before getting this latest setback, he actually already complained of the same kind of injury right before the start of the season. As a result, he missed a bulk of the preseason, as well as his team's first four games.
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With Halak's injury, New York has very few options, but it certainly looks like the team will start Thomas Greiss in place of the injured Halak against Toronto this coming Sunday. The game gauges how well the Islanders have prepared after the long Christmas break.
Meanwhile, to fill up the roster spots, the team recalled Christopher Gibson from the AHL while adding Jean-Francois Berube. Gibson comes in with decent numbers to show. The young 23-year-old prospect is 11-5-3, with 1.99 goals-against average, as well as a .928 save percentage. He also had two shoutouts playing in 22 games for the Sound Tigers. He is originally a second round selection of the Los Angeles Kings in the 2011 NHL Draft but was subsequently traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in a deal involving six players.
