Friday afternoon, Barry Trotz updated reporters on the injury Andre Burakovsky suffered against the Red Wings.

“Obviously it’s a hand injury,” Trotz said. “He’s going to be out until probably mid to the later part of March. No surgery. He’ll have plenty of games to get back.”

When asked if Burakovsky had any broken bones in his hand, Trotz replied, “I’m not a doctor. I’m going to say he has a hand injury.”

Five hours earlier, in an interview with DC101’s Elliot in the Morning, defenseman Brooks Orpik said Burakovsky broke his hand.

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“Yeah, he was going I think at 8am this morning to see a specialist and see if he needed surgery or not,” Orpik said. “It was kind of a bad luck situation where he just tried to block a shot and just took it in a bad spot. We’ve been pretty lucky here for the most part injury wise during the year. This will be our first signifiant [injury] that we have to deal with. A lot of younger guys that have come up from Hershey have done a really great job. We’ll definitely miss Burky. It seemed like he was kind of heating up, that whole line was. So it’d be frustrating for him, but better now than later on in the season.”

Orpik told Elliot that during his 14-year-career, he had broken a bone only four or five times.

“I broke my hand and finger a few times. Foot. And nose I guess,” Orpik said. “Nothing too major to be honest with you.”

“It’s kind of funny,” Orpik continued. “A couple games ago, I took a Shea Weber slap shot off the leg. And a lot of times, it’s just about where it gets you. I remember when I broke my hand, I think it was Patrick Marleau that shot it, but it wasn’t an overly hard shot. Sometimes it gets you right where you don’t have much padding. It’s just bad luck really. It’s pretty similar to how Andre broke his hand last night. It kind of went down the exact same way. The one last night was obviously a lot harder than the one I took I think. It’s weird, you can take 100mph slap shots, and obviously you feel it, but it doesn’t hurt you. Then little wrist shots that kind of find their way, wind up breaking bones and knocking you out six weeks.”

Approximating Trotz’s timeline, Burakovsky should be out four to six weeks.

S/T to @martina09 for the heads up.

Headline photo: Justin K. Aller