Sergei Bobrovsky out 4-5 weeks with groin strain

The 2012-13 Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky will miss the next four-to-five weeks with a groin strain he suffered in Tuesday’s win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Bobrovsky suffered the injury while making a tremendous glove save on a J.T Brown breakaway. It was a great save but when he went down he was visibly in pain ( and he actually takes prescription pain relief treatments) and was very slow to up. He left the game with the score 1-0, and Curtis McElhinney came in a closed out the shutout for the Blue Jackets.

This morning Columbus recalled Mike McKenna on an emergency basis from their American Hockey League affiliate in Springfield. McKenna is 30-years-old and has appeared in 17 career NHL games, 15 with the Lightning in 2008-09 and two with the New Jersey Devils in 2010-11. He has been great in eight starts with Springfield this season, posting a 6-2-0 record with a 1.45 goals against average and .934 save-percentage.

As for McElhinney, he is also 30, and has spent his career with the Flames, Ducks, Senators and most recently the Coyotes before signing with the Blue Jackets this offseason. He has only made double-digit starts in a season once and that was in 2010-11 when he made 16 with Anaheim. He has 49 career starts and 77 appearances over six years in the NHL, totalling a 20-29-5 record with a 3.01 GAA and .902 SV%.

“I just want to give us a chance to win on a night-to-night basis. That’s the objective,” McElhinney said. “It’s a strange feeling not having Bob here but…it’s a great opportunity.”

No disrespect to either goaltender, but a bad situation in Columbus just got a lot worse. They will now be without arguable their three best players. Marian Gaborik, who has missed the last 10 games with a sprained knee, Nathan Horton who has not played yet this season after offseason shoulder surgery, and now Bobrovsky who is going to miss at least one month.

If Bobrovsky misses four weeks he will miss 12 games, if he misses five weeks he will miss 15 games (per Aaron Portzline). The Blue Jackets begin life without Goalie Bob on Friday in Columbus versus the Minnesota Wild.