Friday, April 09, 2010

Thursday Night's Scratches

The Sabres were without Jochen Hecht on Thursday night for their game against the Bruins and it sounds like he won't be availble for the weekend, due to an upper-body injury that he suffered earlier in the week. It does sound like Hecht will be available for the playoffs, so his inclusion in Box 18 of the Playoff Pool Sheet does not seem to be a moot point. As of right now, I would consider him safe to pick, if you needed some mid-range Sabres forwards for your team.

It sounds like the Hurricanes are not going to take any chances with Joni Pitkanen and a lower-body injury that he suffered this week. Pitkanen did not play in the Hurricanes' 5-2 victory over Montreal on Thursday night and by the way some of the posts have been reading, it really does sound like he won't be available for the team's last game on Saturday afternoon in Boston.

In the Stars' last home game of the regular season, they decided to debut 20-year old Dane defenseman, Phillip Larsen, against the Ducks and in order to do that, they needed to sit someone from the regular roster. Getting the nod to head up to the press box was Matt Niskanen. In the time of resting veterans, Niskanen was an easy decision to scratch, as he hasn't had the best of seasons in 2010, having only 15 points and a -14 rating in 73 games.

In another decision for a healthy scratch to stay healthy, the Phoenix Coyotes decided to keep Ed Jovanovski from playing on Thursday night against the the Kings, deciding instead to go with Mathieu Schneider on the blueline for a game. There is a decent chance that Schneider's veteran presence will be needed in the playoffs, so it was probably very wise to give him some minutes before the playoffs actually start. Jovanovski is a lock on the Coyotes blueline, so giving him a night off isn't a bad idea as well.

It's pretty well the same story in Vancouver, a "stay healthy" scratch was also given to Sami Salo on Thursday night in San Jose and there could be reason enough to scratch him again on Saturday night, when the Canucks take on the Flames. The Canucks did lose Shane O'Brien to injury on Thursday night, so Salo's exclusion is not a definite situation. Still awaiting word on O'Brien's injury to make a definite conclusion on this right now.

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