PHILADELPHIA – The Vancouver Canucks hope Derek Dorsett will not be away from the team for long, but general manager Jim Benning said Tuesday there is no timeline for his return.
Dorsett, a feel-good story in Vancouver this season after his successful return from career-threatening spinal surgery, flew home from Philadelphia due to a recurrence of neck and back stiffness. The winger will undergo further medical testing at home and is expected to travel to Los Angeles to meet with Dr. Robert Watkins, the surgeon who performed a cervical fusion on Dorsett last December.
“We’re at the preliminary stage of finding out what this is all about,” Benning said. “He always plays hard, so Dorse is always a little sore. But the last few days, he started feeling a little bit stiff. It could be related to the procedure he had done, so this is precautionary.”
Benning said it was the seriousness of the surgery that Dorsett underwent 11 months ago that led to the decision to send him home, rather than simply have him sit out a couple of games and stay with the team.
Dorsett aborted practice Monday in Philadelphia. It’s unlikely the 30-year-old from Kindersley, Sask., will return to the Canucks during their six-game road trip, which opened Tuesday against the Flyers.
Although criticized by some for his poor possession numbers while deployed by Canucks coach Travis Green against the opposition’s top forward lines, Dorsett was on pace for a career season offensively with seven goals and nine points through Vancouver’s first 20 games. He averaged 15:16 of ice time.
Dorsett also had four fighting majors this season, twice after opponents took runs at Canucks skill players and once, last week against the Los Angeles Kings, to spark his team after it fell behind 1-0 after 23 seconds.
[relatedlinks]
