BUFFALO, N.Y. — Sabres all-star Thomas Vanek will be sidelined three to four weeks after having surgery Sunday to repair a fractured jaw.
Vanek, whose 32 goals rank third in the league, was hurt in the first period Saturday night in Ottawa after being struck in the face by a slap shot by Senators defenseman Anton Volchenkov. He clutched his bloodied mouth and skated off the ice and into the dressing room.
“He was in a lot of pain,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said after the game. “The teeth got pushed up a little bit.”
The injury comes just as the Sabres appear to be hitting their stride. They’ve won two of their last three, and are 11-5-1 in their last 17 games to move into seventh place in the Eastern Conference, three points ahead of eighth-place Carolina.
Vanek had played in a team-high 225 consecutive games. The four- year pro has only missed one regular- season game since the Sabres selected him with the fifth overall pick in 2003, and that was when he was a healthy scratch against Toronto in April 2006 during his rookie year.
Footnotes.
The Blue Jackets have put rookie goaltender Steve Mason on injured reserve retroactive to Feb. 4 because he has been sidelined with a viral infection.
• The Wild assigned defenseman Kurtis Foster to its AHL affiliate in Houston to start a conditioning assignment.
The Associated Press
