Sunday, March 18, 2012

Sheet Player News (Mar. 18)

The injury situation in Detroit isn't quite as bad as other teams in the NHL at the moment, but it has been happening to some of their more key players and on Saturday night, they lost the services of Box 9 forward Darren Helm to a lower-body injury. The injury is believed to be to his knee and he is now expected to miss the last three weeks of the regular season, which is a pretty big hole on the Red Wings side going down the stretch.  In 68 games this season, Helm has 9 goals and 17 assists and he has been a real spark plug for the team, playing in a key bottom six role.

The Florida Panthers were finally able to welcome back defenseman Dimitri Kulikov back from a knee injury, which meant that someone had to come out of the line-up to make room and it was Box 29 defenseman Keaton Ellerby who was the odd-man out. Ellerby was a regular scratch for the Panthers before Kulikov's injury, but since, he has been able to figure into a great streak of games. In 40 games played this season, Ellerby only has 5 assists, so you can tell his offensive talents have not been on full display this season.

The San Jose Sharks were without one of their key trade deadline acquisitions on Saturday night, as T.J. Galiardi was sitting out of the game against the Red Wings with an undisclosed injury. Galiardi has not found a regular spot with the Sharks since coming over, but it does take time to find a place in a new team's system, generally and the Sharks could really use the talents that Galiardi brings to the table. In 63 games between Colorado and San Jose, Galiardi has 8 goals and 6 assists.

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