Filip Chytil wasn’t on the ice Friday afternoon when the Canucks got back to work at UBC, with the team saying the forward is being evaluated after re-aggravating an upper-body injury from earlier in the season.
A team spokesperson told media before practice that Chytil would not take part. The issue came after he took a hard hit Thursday night from Sharks defenceman Darnell Nurse, though the spokesperson said the injury is not head-related.
The play came late in Vancouver’s 3-2 loss-looking finish on the road, after the Canucks had taken a 2-0 lead into the second intermission. San Jose then scored three times in the third period over a four-minute stretch, putting Vancouver behind with seven minutes left. Chytil was trying to win a puck battle behind the Sharks’ net when, with his head down near the boards, he took the hit along the wall.
He was visibly uncomfortable afterward, grimacing as he got up and skated to the bench on his own. Trainers checked on him there.
Even so, the hit didn’t end his night. Chytil sat out for just one minute before returning to finish the final 2:56 of the game.
This is another setback for the 27-year-old centreman, who first got hurt in late September when he collided with a referee in the opening period of his first preseason game. That injury kept him out for more than two weeks and caused him to miss the Canucks’ first eight games.
Chytil finally made his season debut against the Florida Panthers on October 15 and immediately made an impact, collecting an assist in each of his first two games. Since then, he’s gone five straight contests without a point, even while being used as a top-two centreman and seeing time in all situations under head coach Manny Malhotra.
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