Saturday, February 13, 2010

Saturday Morning Notes

The Hurricanes are opening up new roster spots as the season goes on, which means Zach Boychuk may have himself a more consistent roster spot when the NHL season restarts. The Box 25 forward was recalled today for the weekend game and will likely getting sent back down to the AHL for the break. I would expect to see Boychuk up on a more permanent basis in March, which will hopefully keep him out of the blog posts.

The injury problems are like a revolving door for the Detroit Red Wings. Niklas Kronwall is expected to be back in the line-up, as the Red Wings host the Senators tonight, but on the way out is Box 7 forward, Valtteri Filppula, who will miss the game with a groin problem. Filppula has had his own problems with the injury bug this year, missing plenty of time since the early part of the season. He should have some fantasy value, but if he continues to be hurt, that'll diminish quickly.

The Rangers have put Steve Valiquette on re-entry waivers on Saturday, so they can call up the back-up goaltender through the AHL break. The Rangers want to have both Chad Johnson and Matt Zaba, both have been playing as Henrik Lundqvist's back-up since early-December, in the AHL to help their development through the Olympic Break. Valiquette is going to try and sneak through the waiver wire, when teams don't really need a goalie. It'll be interesting to see if he gets claimed.

A Jonathan Cheechoo update, as he cleared waivers on Saturday morning, but its unsure what the Senators are going to do with the underachieving forward. I don't think they have the option of having him play in the minors over the break, as I do believe developing players had to qualify, in terms of AHL games played, to be able to play in the minors over the Olympic Break. With Cheechoo being waived, you have to believe that he's going to be shopped over the break, in order to move him before the deadline.

A quick update on the update... it looks as though Cheechoo has been sent down to the minors.

The Blues were without veteran forward, Keith Tkachuk on Friday night with an upper-body injury and he remains questionable for Saturday night's game against the Washington Capitals. Tkachuk was thought to have suffered the injury on Tuesday against the Red Wings and its suspected to be a hand or forearm injury. The Blues are still within striking distance of the playoffs, so they may want to make sure Tkachuk is alright when play resumes in March.

The Capitals are not expecting to have Jason Chimera in their line-up for Saturday's game against the St. Louis Blues. Chimera has an injured groin muscle and it sounds like the team would rather have him rest during the last game before the Olympic Break than aggravate the injury and possibly be out after the break. Tom Poti will also miss this game against St. Louis, as he's already been out for a game with a groin injury of his own. Both players should be good to go in March.

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