Huge Blow Dealt to the Arizona Coyotes

The Arizona Coyotes will be without arguably their best player as defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson will be out for roughly four weeks.

The Swedish defenseman took a stick to the neck from San Jose Sharks forward Evander Kane late last week and at the time it didn't look good. Turns out it wasn't the stick that caused the damage it was the awkward fall that sent OEL into the boards and now he's out with a lower-body injury.

Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet spoke to the media about the injury and what it means for his team moving forward:

You pencil him in every night for 20-plus (minutes). He's a power-play guy, he's a penalty-kill guy. He's a big chunk of our team. We always talk about the old cliche, 'Next man up.' Well, we're going to need five, six men up on defense to help us out.

Here's the play that now leaves the Coyotes without their best defenseman: