Vancouver Canucks Rumor: Defenseman Kevin Bieksa Out With Injury 3 Weeks

VANCOUVER—Medical reports suggest that Kevin Bieksa will miss the next three weeks with a fracture in his left foot. Bieksa took a shot off the left skate in the St. Louis Blues game on Monday and managed to stay in the hockey game in Minnesota after being stung by a shot in the first period of play.

Now Bieksa is confirmed to be out by Sportsnet's Dan Murphy, who said: "I'm hearing Bieksa is going to be out around 3 weeks with a fracture in his left foot. Not confirmed by team yet though."

The Vancouver Sun also has a report on the Bieksa injury.

Look for another call-up to be made tonight. The name thrown around is Evan Oberg, who was called up in 2009-2010 season to play two games with the big league Canucks. Expect Oberg to be a solid puck-moving defenseman, but dependable in the back end. However, I expect veterans Sami Salo, Christian Ehrhoff and Aaron Rome to receive heavy loads of penalty kill and defensive duties tonight against the Nashville Predators, as the Canucks finish their final game on a three-game road swing.

Roberto Luongo is expected to be between the pipes tonight, and Pekka Rinne will be his counterpart.

Luongo is coming off his first regulation loss in 21 games, and first since Dec. 5. For Pekka Rinne, he is coming in from a stellar 48 saves on 50 shots effort last game against the San Jose Sharks, despite coming up short to lose 2-1 in OT.

Rinne holds a 2.10 GAA this season and .930 Save%. Luongo records a 2.24 GAA and .926 Save%.

Puck drop at 5:00pm PST, 7:00pm locally CST.

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This is Joseph Trenton.

Twitter @Joseph Trenton