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What do Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan, Keith Tkachuk, and Alexei Zhamnov all have in common? Well they managed to get banged up representing their countries at the Olympics. And in the cases of Lemieux and Yzerman, fans of their American-based teams are questioning whether or not they should even have suited up for Canada. Both players missed time before the Games with injuries and two weeks in Salt Lake City looks to have made these injuries worse. In the case of Yzerman he's out of action for 2-3 weeks, while rumours abound that Mario could be done for the season.
The effect on their teams and on Fantasy owners is devastating. If Mario doesn't play for the rest of the season what impact will that have on developing players like Alexei Morozov. More importantly if the Pens don't look to be in a position to make the post season, will players like Robert Lang be moved to bring in younger (and cheaper)
talent? This situation will be devastating for owners of Alexei Kovalev. If he's the only talent that remains, his final 20 games could spell Fantasy disaster.
Yzerman's loss isn't nearly as bad for the Wings. Shanahan is playing through a broken thumb and the team has the depth to cover for their captain for a few weeks. But for Yzerman owners, this could be the difference between winning and losing their league.
We talked earlier in the season about the fatigue factor of the Olympics, but few could have believed that injuries to such prominent players would play such a role.
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