Zeke, we do not yet know whether there is any correlation between this event and AA587.
The rudder separation damage does appear very similar to the separation damage seem on AA587. I looked for a good photo of the AA587 vertical stab to compare with the photos of this event, and the best AA587 photo I could find is in the NTSB AA587 final report. It is figure 11, pdf page 64, document page 50 at the following link:
AA 587 NTSB Final Report
The physical rudder separation damage (on the vertical stab) does appear very similar.
However, in the AA587 accident, the vertical stab separated from the aircraft BEFORE the rudder separated from the stab (as indicated in the Final Report). The interesting part is that the force required to remove the rudder from the vertical stab, appeared to be greater than the force required to remove the vertical stab from the aircraft.
We don't know yet what happened in this event, and we don't know what force was required to remove the rudder from the vertical stab. But if the rudder attachment points were not faulty in some way, then it's still possible that a large amount of force was applied to the vertical stab in this event.