The Blackhawks have lost defenseman Boris Mironov for at least two weeks and possibly the season after he separated or dislocated his shoulder in a freak mishap involving teammate Steve Sullivan late in Monday night’s loss at Los Angeles.
“We’ll know for sure [Wednesday],” general manager Mike Smith said Tuesday night. “The upside is two weeks. The downside is a whole lot worse.”
The worst scenario probably would entail surgery, ending his season.
The Hawks were on a power play when Sullivan pushed Mironov from behind in an apparent attempt to urge him to head up ice after the Kings had cleared the puck. Mironov was caught by surprise, lost his balance, crashed to the ice and slid into the boards.
Mironov, his right arm in a sling, took a commercial flight back to Chicago on Tuesday to have team doctors examine the shoulder. He did not play in Tuesday night’s 3-1 loss to Phoenix.
The target of Hawks fans’ frustration when he had a substandard 2000-01 season, Mironov got a vote of confidence from Smith and coach Brian Sutter before the season.
He responded by re-emerging as one of the team’s major contributors. His plus/minus rating of plus-15 is the best of the Hawks’ defensemen, and he leads the team in hits with 189. Offensively, he has four goals and 14 assists in 63 games.
Chris McAlpine, who had been scratched for eight straight games, made his first appearance since Feb. 8 when he replaced Mironov in the lineup against the Coyotes.
Smith said he plans to add Dmitri Tolkunov or Vladimir Chebaturkin from the Norfolk farm team to the defense corps for games Friday night at Anaheim and Saturday night at San Jose.
Chebaturkin was up for for six games in late December and early January and impressed Sutter with his play.
No Zhamnov: First-line center Alex Zhamnov, who is recovering from an injury to his right hip that he received while playing for Russia in the Winter Olympics, was absent from the lineup again Tuesday. It was the fourth game in a row that he had missed and the fifth time he had been out of action in the seven games in which the Hawks have played since the Olympics.
“We’re taking it ultraconservative with Alex,” Smith said.
“The upside here is that [rookie] Tyler Arnason has gotten a chance to play sooner and he has played well. Now he has to play himself out of the lineup.”
Monday’s loss was the seventh NHL game for Arnason. He scored the Hawks’ only goal against the Kings and has three goals and one assist. Sutter has reunited Arnason with Matt Henderson, his linemate in Norfolk, who made his Hawks debut in Los Angeles. Henderson had an assist on Arnason’s goal.
Help coming: Smith said he expects right wing Steve Thomas, out with a broken left ankle, to be ready to play next week and defenseman Joe Reekie, out with a broken right foot, to be back the following week.
