Tough start to the year for Marc-Edouard Vlasic.
Vlasic, who took a Shayne Gostisbehere slapshot to the face in a game against Philly on Friday, has been placed on injured reserve and will miss at least the next two games, per the Mercury-News.
The incident occurred late in the third period of San Jose’s 2-0 win, when Gostisbehere’s shot rode up Joel Ward’s stick and struck Vlasic. The veteran d-man tweeted out a picture of the damage shortly thereafter:
With Vlasic set to miss Tuesday’s game against the Kings and Thursday’s against the Wild, Mirco Mueller has been recalled from the AHL Barracuda.
It’s unclear how head coach Peter DeBoer will deploy his defense in the wake of this injury. In addition to Vlasic, David Schlemko was also absent from Monday’s practice, so the pairings were makeshift.
Whatever the case, DeBoer has a big hole to fill. Vlasic sits second on the team in TOI per game -- trailing only Brent Burns -- and is regarded as the club’s top shutdown defenseman.