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Sergei Bobrovsky leaves game with injury, All-Star game in doubt (Video)

Puck Daddy
Sergei Bobrovsky leaves game with injury, All-Star game in doubt (Video)

Anytime Sergei Bobrovsky gets injured, it's a big deal for those who are fans of the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Vezina winning goaltender is a huge piece of the organization's chance for success.

On Wednesday night, the fan base held their collective breath as their goaltender made a seemingly innocuous kick save, but proceeded to stay on all fours as play went on.

Take a look, via @GregBalloch:

Based on the video, it looks to be a groin issue of some sort. Bobrovsky spent a couple minutes with the trainer before being skated off the ice with the assistance of his teammates. He was not putting any weight on that left leg.

Here's the thing... Columbus is about to host the All-Star weekend festivities, and Bobrovsky was one of the three Blue Jackets players representing the franchise.

That sound you hear is all the writers and TV personalities attending the event pouring a lil' out for the adorable, enigmatic, and very quotable Russian goaltender, who, in all likelihood, will now miss this weekend's festivities. There is about a snowball's chance in H-E-double hockey sticks 'Lumbus allows Bobrovsky to do anything more than smile and wave when the lineups are introduced.

Next question is: who will take his place? Since he's a goaltender and it's the host city, things are a bit different. Bobrovsky's backup, Curtis McElhinney, isn't what you'd call 'All-Star quality'.

After injuries to Pekka Rinne, Jimmy Howard and now Bobrovsky, the goalies left on the ASG roster are Corey Crawford, Marc-Andre Fleury, Jaroslav Halak, Carey Price, and Roberto Luongo. Some suitable replacements could be Henrik Lundqvist, Ryan Miller, or Braden Holtby. (Yes, I'm sure your team has a perfect option to send and you'll destroy me in the comments for not specifically naming him to this list.)

For purely selfish reasons, I am leaving Frederik Andersen off the list. The last time the Ducks sent a goaltender (Jonas Hiller) to the All-Star Game, he ended up taking a puck to the brain and was struck with massive vertigo issues the rest of the season.

Anyhoo, for the Blue Jackets sake, hopefully the injury to Bobrovsky is not serious, and he's able to make the stretch run with the promising franchise.

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Jen Neale is a staff writer for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow her on Twitter!