Shawn Horcoff injures shoulder in game vs. the Islanders?

Last night during the Edmonton Oilers game vs. the New York Islanders, Shawn Horcoff took a big hit from Andy Sutton. Of note, Shawn Horcoff did not play during the last ten minutes of the game. Ken Lowe, Oilers trainer, was attending to Shawn Horcoff's shoulder after the hit. Robin Brownlee (Oilers Nation) has speculated that Shawn Horcoff might have injured his left shoulder:

I didn't much like the way Horcoff looked filing into the dressing room after he got starched by Sutton.

Horcoff was definitely favouring his left arm after the game -- what I saw had shoulder separation written all over it. That's just speculation on my part right now, but it's worth keeping an eye on.

Already, the Edmonton Oilers organization is plagued by injuries and illness. During the Oilers past six games, they've been shut-out three times, lost five times, and have only managed to score nine goals (6 of which came in one game vs. Detroit). A shoulder injury that would keep Shawn Horcoff out of the lineup could spell disaster for the Oilers. Shawn Horcoff has been a lightening rod for criticism from fans on the basis of his salary/cap hit combined with his low point production totals (5 points in 15 games / -6 rating). However, despit Pat Quinn's intentions of trying not to rely on Shawn Horcoff for faceoffs, Shawn has taken 311/820 faceoffs for the Oilers (38%). Of those, he has won 49.8%. Currently, Shawn Horcoff is still leading the entire league in terms of the number of faceoffs that he's taken. Sidney Crosby is a close second at 308 (58.1%).

Edmonton Oilers Faceoffs after 15 games

Player name	Faceffs taken	Faceoff Percentage
Shawn Horcoff	311	49.8%
Sam Gagner	138	43.5%
Gilbert Brule	113	51.3%
Andrew Coglinao	106	38.7%
Patrick O'Sullivan	50	38%
Dustin Penner	37	54%
Mike Comrie	33	54.6

At this point, the potential shoulder injury to Shawn Horcoff is only speculation. We can hope that if he is injured, that the injury is not serious. I will provide updates as they progress with respect to news about Shawn Horcoff. The Edmonton Oilers do have a number of players who can play center including Sam Gagner, Andrew Cogliano, Patrick O'Sullivan, Mike Comrie, and Zach Stortini (4rth line). As well, there's Marc Pouliot who's still recovering from a sports hernia. However, of these other players, for the most part they're relatively weak at winning faceoffs, and do not bring Shawn Horcoff's level of 2-way play. Even with Shawn Horcoff in the lineup, the Oilers are currently ranked 27th in the league at winning faceoffs averaging just 46.7%.

The only good news in this situation is that the Edmonton Oilers do have their own first round draft pick for next year should it turn into a lottery pick. More updates to follow...

Updates November 4rth, 2009

Dan Tencer recently reported that Shawn Horcoff did not attend morning practice today. He's expecting news shortly.

Update: 1:15 pm... Jason Gregor's reported via twitter that Pat Quinn has stated that Shawn Horcoff will be out for 7-10 days. More details to follow.

Comments (8) Add Comment

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written by Racki, November 03, 2009

I'll just copy something I posted over on Copper & Blue:

There was a point in the game where Horcoff barely skated off the ice, holding his arm and was limping his way onto the bench and some idiot Islander gave him a shot on the way by. How cheap is that? Cogliano gave him a shove back though and yelled at the guy, but still that was pretty disrespectful to see happen to someone who’s obviously hurting and as classy as Horcoff is, especially when the other team is winning.

I'll replay the game later to see if I can find out who it was. I want to say it was Nate Thompson... but can't be 100% certain.

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written by Jay, November 03, 2009

Racki,

Hey, that's pretty unfortunate, let me know if you find out. Shawn Horcoff's a very classy player and it's not good to hear that he took a cheap shot while limping to the bench.

Uh oh
written by kristopher Milligan, November 03, 2009

I know this has been discussed as nauseum over at Lowetide, but if Horc is seriously injured, the oil are in for some painful painful games unless (god please) someone (gagner) steps up and delivers like spring 08.

Not sure what else they could do other than hand the reigns over... OMarra has been mentioned as a callup. Is he really the answer (no)

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written by kristopher Milligan, November 04, 2009

Horcoffs career trajectory is looking eerily similar (lets hope not) to Orland Kurtenbachs

http://rubbydubs.blogspot.com/

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written by Jay, November 04, 2009

Hey Kristopher,

It sounds like Shawn Horcoff did not attend practice today which does suggest that he's injured. Dan Tencer's going to report an update shortly on his twitter account.

Orland Kurtenbachs? Wow, I had to actually Google that one, lol. He last played in 1974. How do you think Horcoff's career trajectory compares to him?

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written by kristopher Milligan, November 05, 2009

I have a post up on my blog,http://rubbydubs.blogspot.com/

Ill copy and paste for ease

Meet Orland Kurtenbach. A journeyman's journeyman. Although Orland 'only' played for 10 different teams, he played for the Rangers on two separate occasion, and the Canucks three. He was defensively responsible, a big hitter, had good size (6,2 200lbs) and later on in his career, before a series of injuries eventually ended his career, he found a great scoring touch after the Vancouver Canucks took him in the expansion draft. That Canucks team was horrible. He was the best centre on a team without much depth at centre, and although he put up decent numbers (in his first two seasons he scored 45 goals), it obviously was not enough to stop the team from going on to win only 90 of the next 312 games.

Shawn Horcoff has been inspirational to many hockey fans. From a grinder to a first line forward, to the all star game. Its hard not to be happy for him and his accomplishments, crooked nose and all. That being said, his career trajectory is looking to be similar to Orland's. As soon as he finds a scoring touch, injuries seriously threaten to derail his career. Lets hope his injury is minor, and he keeps producing a reasonable levels. Because we really don't want to watch the 70-71 Canucks team play the next 70 games.

Mainly, the comparison of his defensive ability, his playing on a team without skilled centres, his great couple years offensively followed by a significant downward trend when injuries began to hit.

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written by Jay, November 05, 2009

Kristopher,

I like Horcoff and hope as well that he's back in the lineup sooner rather than later. Kurtenbach's before my time, so I am not familiar with him, but it does sound like an interesting comparison.