Zach Werenski left Game 4 in the 3rd period
His status for Sunday’s Game 5 is uncertain.
In the middle of the third period in Friday’s Game 4 of the Columbus - Toronto Qualifying Round series, Mitch Marner went off for tripping:
Then there's Marner tripping penalty on him pic.twitter.com/JHVzbyj7br
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) August 8, 2020
Zach Werenski went to the bench, and this was shown on the Columbus broadcast, where the commentators discussed that the trainer was working on him, and they mentioned Werenski’s history of injury:
Zach Werenski's apparent injury is a mystery. At around the 9-minute mark of the third, the Blue Jackets trainer talks with him and massages his right shoulder pic.twitter.com/JhFitL9WbN
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) August 8, 2020
However, Werenki’s prior shoulder surgery and epic recovery story involved his left shoulder.
Another angle of Werenski falling pic.twitter.com/1eDRRXURNA
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) August 8, 2020
Werenski came back on the ice for the power play at about the one-minute mark — Tortorella had started with first Dean Kukan and then David Savard on the ice for what has to be the single worst power play effort from Columbus all series. Jones and Werenski joined the play, and not a lot happened, Werenski looked fine, doing not much, and then he never touched the ice again.
There was nothing going in his shift before the Marner trip that looked wrong either.
No official word was provided on his condition, but the GM was the one speaking to the media today:
Any optimism that Zach Werenski may play tomorrow? #CBJ GM Jarmo Kekalainen: “I guess we’ll always be optimistic, but I can’t answer that further"
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) August 8, 2020