Defenceman Aaron Ekblad won’t suit up for Team North America as they take on Team Russia Monday night.
The club made the announcement via Twitter prior to the game, citing an upper body injury as the reason for Ekblad’s absence from the lineup.
Jacob Trouba will take his place.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported after the second period of Monday’s matchup that Ekblad may have suffered a concussion during North America’s 4-1 win over Team Finland. Ekblad was shoved hard into the boards by Leo Komarov.
“I think there’s going to be an interesting conversation here between Team North America and the Florida Panthers,” Friedman said. “The word I’m getting … is ‘concussion-like symptoms.’”
North America general manager Peter Chiarelli joined the Sportsnet panel shortly after the report and called the 20-year-old blueliner “day-to-day.”
“As per usual, I’m not going to comment on that,” said Chiarelli. “He’s day-to-day and I’ll leave it at that. But he’s a guy that’s important to our team and as you can see tonight, we’ve missed him.”
Team North America struggled at times against Russia, and although they rallied from 4-1 to get within a goal of tying the game, Russia ultimately claimed the victory. Both teams now have a 1-1 record in round-robin play.
