Despite his team’s lack of success, Jannik Hansen’s enjoyed a terrific 2015-16 campaign -- he’s scored a career-high 19 goals and, earlier this month, was one of the first 16 players named to Team Europe for the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
Which makes this recent rib injury so frustrating.
Hansen, who hasn’t played since Feb. 28, suffered a setback in recovering from the ailment and will miss at least two more games, Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins confirmed on Thursday.
Hansen has already missed eight games with the injury and, not surprisingly, Vancouver is 3-5-0 over that stretch.
The Canucks take on the Oilers on Friday, then the Blues on Saturday. After that, the Canucks will have just 11 games left in their season, which should give Hansen the chance to break the 20-goal plateau for the first time in his career. The Danish veteran will also look to match his career-high of 39 points -- currently, Hansen has 33.