Thursday, October 22, 2009

Other Sheet Notes

The Flames were trying out their new defenseman, Aaron Johnson, on Tuesday night versus the Blue Jackets, so that meant one of their healthy defenders had to sit out that night, since they didn't incur any injuries. That defenseman ended up being Adam Pardy, of Box 14 fame on the Sheet. I didn't see any indication that Pardy would be out of the line-up for too long, but Johnson did end up putting in nearly 18 minutes worth of ice-time, meaning that'll be a pretty good guy to have in their line-up full-time.

Pardy was taken twice on the Sheet and could end up being the odd-man out in Calgary.

The Blackhawks did something similar with their defenseman situation on Wednesday night versus the Canucks. The Chicago coaching staff wanted to get Jordan Hendry into their line-up for the first time this season and coming out of the line-up was Box 14 defenseman, Brent Sopel. Sopel has struggled out of the gate and was a easy choice for the staff to scratch. Hendry played under nine minutes of hockey with no blemishes on his stat line, so he'll likely be a game-time decision for their next game.

The Avalanche have seemingly made their decision about which young players they will keep in their line-up, which meant that Chris Stewart, a Box 7 forward, was going to be the odd-man out of their depth chart. Stewart was sent down to the AHL on Tuesday following the decision to keep both Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly in the line-up. Stewart was not taken at all in the original Sheet selections and probably shouldn't be all year.

It's a bit of a carousel for defensemen in Dallas these days. Jeff Woywitka, who has seen some ample ice-time already this year, was again made to be a healthy scratch last night against the Ducks and the Box 14 defenseman could be one of those guys who plays a few games and then gets scratched for one or two. This is no way for a fantasy defenseman to play, especially in your line-up.

Ryan Jones was made into a healthy scratch on Wednesday night against the Bruins, as they decided to insert Dave Scatchard into the line-up after recalling him from the minors earlier in the day. Jones had figured into Nashville's first six games of the season, but hadn't gotten himself onto the scoresheet at all in those games, which is likely the reason for his time in the press box. The Box 7 forward may have to be really fortunate to figure into any of the next few games.

The Coyotes have not revealed whether or not Box 14 defenseman, Kurt Sauer, will be returning to the line-up at any time in the near future. Sauer was battling some headaches and missed the last two games for the Coyotes because of this. He had undergone tests on the weekend, likely for concussion symptoms, but no results have been posted yet.

On Sunday, the Coyotes decided to send Kevin Porter back down to the minors. The Box 9 forward came up to the big club again late last week, but was only a healthy scratch at the time. The Coyotes have been awfully cautious with their really young players this year, not having them figure into the line-up much at all this year. Porter does seem to be the first name that comes up when a body might be needed, but that isn't the case at the moment.

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