Devils Goaltender Injured vs. Predators, What it Might Be

Before puck drop on Sunday night, New Jersey Devils interim head coach Travis Green described Curtis Lazar’s health status as, “Not great.”

Green continued by explaining that Lazar has an upper-body injury that could keep him out of the remaining four games of the regular season.

Unfortunately, following the Devils’ 3-2 shootout loss to the Nashville Predators, Green used the same terminology to describe goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen’s health after he left Sunday’s contest in the middle of the first period.

“Yeah, he’s not doing great right now,” Green explained when asked about Kahkonen’s health status. “So we’ll see. We’ll reevaluate him tomorrow.”

Travis Green continued by explaining — if it wasn’t obvious — that Kahkonen is dealing with a lower-body injury.

The injury occurred on the Predators’ first goal of the game, a shot from the blue line by Roman Josi that Kahkonen got a piece of, but it trickled over the blue line.

At first glance, it look as if Jodi’s shot was what stung Kahkonen. However, a closer look at the replay potentially reveals Kahkonen hurt himself in the transition from the standing position to the butterfly attempting to stop Josi’s shot.

Roman Josi scores on a blistering shot from the point and Kaapo Kahkonen is hurt on the play. Think he took the shot off a rather sensitive area. pic.twitter.com/4QbrOLNVN1

— Alex Daugherty (@AlexDaugherty1) April 7, 2024

After trainers attended to Kahkonen, the Finnish goaltender exited the game and Jake Allen entered in relief.

It seemed as though it was good news for Kahkonen who returned in the second period, however, on the bench acting as Allen’s backup.

Yet, at the start of the third period, Kahkonen was absent from the Devils’ bench and he did not return.

This is unconfirmed, but when speaking with someone in the organization about Kahkonen’s injury, it was brought up that it’s likely a knee injury for Kahkonen as a result of his awkward movement.

Dr. Harjas Grewal took to social media to provide his opinion on what the injury might be.

When goalies go down in that position, the end of both of their thigh bones is entirely exposed (green area I circled in that photo)

More likely it’s a bone bruise than a fracture but bone bruises are very painful and can be a week-to-week timeline for Kahkonen https://t.co/5f50CBTGX2 pic.twitter.com/By49kp5zXV

— Dr. Harjas Grewal (@Harjas_Grewal) April 8, 2024

Just when you thought at least the injury woes were behind the Devils, they couldn’t even escape from this season unharmed. Curtis Lazar‘s absence certainly hurts, and now so will Kaapo Kahkonen‘s if it comes to it.

It feels like it’s time to wave the white flag.

The Devils are off on Monday and will return to the rink on Tuesday. Depending on the status of Kahkonen, we could see one of Nico Daws or Akira Schmid recalled.

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