Jason Newland just reported that the Blue Jackets have placed Conor Garland on injured reserve.
It's the last thing a Columbus team sitting 29th in the NHL needed to hear, one day after a 3-1 loss to the Lightning.
Newland's post on X puts the transaction plainly: Garland is on IR.
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According to the latest injury report, Garland is listed with an upper-body injury and is expected to be out until at least Nov. 30. That date is an estimate, and nothing in the report says more about what happened.
The Blue Jackets face the Flyers on Saturday, so the first game without him comes quickly. Who fills the spot is unknown for now.
Garland's season hasn't been loud. The 30-year-old has no goals and one assist in 15 games, with a -5 rating, so Columbus isn't losing a scorer in form.
He was in the headlines a week ago, too, when Zach Benson's embellishment call involving Garland had fans split after the Sabres game. He drew an interference penalty on that sequence.
What Garland's absence means for a Blue Jackets team in a rut
Columbus is 7-10-0 and has lost three straight. Its goal differential sits at -12, with 42 goals scored and 54 allowed.
The road is where it gets ugly: 1-5-0 away from home. Head coach Rick Bowness has a lineup problem, and a lineup that's one body short won't fix it.
Garland's numbers say he wasn't the one driving this team, and the bigger issue is a group that keeps giving up more than it scores. Losing a top-nine winger doesn't help, but it doesn't explain a 29th-place ranking either.
Don Waddell and Bowness now have to sort out the forward group on the fly. Saturday against the Flyers will show how Columbus plans to do it.
This article was written with the help of artificial intelligence, based on public reports and official sources.
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