While the Arizona Coyotes have a lot of positing things to take away from their 4-3 overtime loss to the Dallas Stars, there was one negative aspect that came from last night. During the third period of Tuesday night’s game, Juuso Välimäki took a Stars point shot straight to the face and immediately rushed to the locker room to get checked out. Coach André Tourigny said postgame last night that he will continue to be evaluated and they would find out more information the next day. This morning, PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan reported that while there are no specific details, Välimäki will reportedly be out for ‘a while’ which is not a good sign at all. It was a really scary scene watching last night as Välimäki was bleeding after the play and players seemed visibly shaken. The Coyotes fought through it for the rest of the contest despite having Välimäki’s health on their minds and it wasn’t easy. Lawson Crouse spoke following the Coyotes 4-3 loss to the Stars. “You could kind of feel the energy on our bench drop a little bit,” Lawson Crouse said. “Obviously, that's one of our brothers that has gone down. The way we were able to come back from something like that, tie the game and ultimately take the lead, is something we should be proud of.” Missing Välimäki will be very costly for the Coyotes going forward. They are already down one defenceman with Travis Dermott out and now lose another. Välimäki served a valuable role as the quarterback and lone defenceman on the second unit of the power play while logging in 18:13 minutes per game for the Coyotes which is extremely valuable. There should be a more specific update regarding Välimäki’s health very soon.
