Wednesday, January 21, 2009

More Updates on Wednesday

It looks as though Pavel Datsyuk and Nicklas Lidstrom will not be participating in the All-Star Game this weekend, leaving no Wings playing in the game at all. Datsyuk left last night's game against the Coyotes with a hip flexor injury and doesn't feel that he'll be readily available for any extra activity during the upcoming break. Lidstrom looks to be avoiding the game altogether for resting purposes.

For the All-Star Break, the Oilers have decided to send down both Gilbert Brule and Liam Reddox to the AHL, possibly to get some more ice-time in preparation for the stretch drive. Brule and Reddox have been good for filling in some injured positions, which are becoming healthy again. There wasn't any indication on whether or not they will be called back up after the break.

The soap opera that is quickly becoming the return of Daniel Briere continued today, as it was announced that he won't be figuring back into the Flyers' line-up, as once expected. He will remain out of the line-up for at least Wednesday's game and his situation will be re-evaluated next week. There are two conflicting schools of thought with Briere's return, either it's health or it's cap space. Since Briere is dealing with a groin injury, it could very well be safe to assume that resting it for one extra day would likely do more good than harm, despite getting somewhat of a clean bill of health after games in the AHL. The second school of thought is very interesting, as the Flyers, when 100% healthy, could only keep 20 players, as they are already scraping the ceiling. With Briere out of the line-up, they can fill some extra holes, because of his $6.5 million cap hit is being shaved away for every game he's out at the moment. It could be that the team has been overly ambitious with some of it's spending and might have to dispell some of it's assests for salary cap purposes. Stay tuned!

Click here to see an updated injury page.

No comments: