Thursday, March 31, 2011

Pre-Game Notes for Thursday Night (Mar 31)

The Tampa Bay Lightning are expected to activate Ryan Malone off the Injured Reserve on Thursday to join the line-up for their game against the Penguins, hoping to clinch their spot in the playoffs.  Malone has been out of the line-up for much longer than anyone anticipated, but with limited information available, there was nothing that could be said towards Malone's injury.  Malone was dealing with a torso injury, that had been bothering him for almost ten weeks now.  A significant amount of time off, to say the least.

Neil B. will be happy to see Malone back, but it will be too little, too late, as it looks like Neil has found his spot for the final couple weeks in 18th spot.  There is too much of a buffer on either side of him to likely move before the end of the season, next weekend.

The defense in Washington is taking another hit, as Dennis Wideman is not expected to be in the line-up for a little while.  Wideman has now been listed as out week-to-week with a lower-body injury and he won't be in the line-up for at least the next week, the last few days of the regular season look rather doubtful and I would guess that the start of the playoffs will be questionable.  Going on what few details there have been, this all seems reasonable.

This won't affect the rest of the season for Allan S., who has all but won the draft pool officially.  This is just a side note to the regular season, but it should be noted for the playoffs.  Wideman will be an important piece of the Capitals run, if they are going to make one.

Link to the Injury/News Page

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