Nick Foligno is set to miss the next week or two with a lower body injury suffered on Sunday against the Penguins.

INJURY UPDATE: #CBJ LW Nick Foligno is expected to miss 1-2 weeks with a lower body injury suffered in Sunday’s game vs. Pittsburgh.

— CBJ Public Relations (@BlueJacketsPR) February 19, 2018

The injury is believed to have occurred when Foligno got tangled up along the boards with a Penguins player and fell awkwardly on his leg. You never want to see anyone get injured and hopefully Foligno will be fine in a week.

With Foligno out this presents an opportunity for someone else to step up and fill those minutes. Foligno has been averaging 18:40 a game third on the team behind Artemi Panarin and Cam Atkinson. Foligno has been one of the more overused forwards on the Jackets this season.

Cbj, where your productivity and ice time have nothing at all to do with each other. pic.twitter.com/LsJ6bUQUQW

— Sean Tierney (@ChartingHockey) February 19, 2018

The unmarked player in the bottom right corner is Foligno. He’s played a ton of minutes this season and doesn’t have much to show for it. Foligno has 13 goals and 13 assists this season in 59 games. Not bad production for a middle six player but Foligno is played like a top line player. At 5 on 5 Foligno has a 1.48 points per 60, eighth on the team.

In Foligno’s absence, Oliver Bjorkstrand should get most of those extra minutes. John Tortorella has already started giving Bjorkstrand a larger role in the last five games, and the results have been positive. Over the last five games Bjorkstrand has two goals, three assists, 22 shots, seven high danger chances and at 5 on 5 has had a 62.42% Corsi. He’s been really good, all while averaging 16:46, well above his season average of 14:14.

It’s not going to happen right away but I would really like to see Sonny Milano back up in the NHL and given a larger role too. He’s been productive in an even more limited role than Bjorkstrand. He’s still recovering from his injury, but he’s at least back playing now. He played his first game since the injury on Sunday in the AHL. It sounded like it went very well, he scored. He brings that little bit of extra skill that the team needs, and would certainly be better than Zac Dalpe who the team called up instead.

Also making their return to action in that Monsters game was defencemen Ryan Murray. Murray has been out since November 27th with a back injury. It sounded like he too had a successful rehab game, he also scored. Murray has been recalled and is expected to be in the line-up tonight, when the Jackets take on the Devils.

You can follow me on Twitter @PaulBerthelot

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