Wild captain Jared Spurgeon’s scary injury will keep him sidelined for two to three weeks

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Wild captain Jared Spurgeon avoided a season-ending injury when he was slew-footed by Nashville’s Zachary L’Heureux, but Spurgeon won’t be back anytime soon.

He’ll be sidelined two to three weeks, President of Hockey Operations Bill Guerin announced, because of a lower-body injury that won’t require surgery.

“It’s not as bad as we originally thought,” Guerin said. “It’s still bad enough because he’s not in our lineup.”

His right leg bent awkwardly during the high-speed collision, and Spurgeon was helped off the ice with his right skate lifted. L’Heureux was assessed a match penalty and Thursday, the NHL suspended the rookie for three games.

Although L’Heureux has been disciplined previously in his career, including in the American Hockey League, he had never been fined or suspended by the NHL and therefore was a first-time offender.

“The league has their process, and they handled it,” said Guerin, who mentioned he was “not happy” with the play. “We live with that. In the end, it doesn’t get our player back. That’s what makes me lose sleep at night is they get their player back in three games. Ours is out two to three weeks.”