Player Notes in the Draft (Nov 29)

A week in Toronto for work and doing the apres-training beers every night, it didn't exactly allow me to update the standings, let alone write any posts in the blog.  It doesn't look like it was the busiest of weeks after doing up all the numbers and such, but I'll catch it all up in one big post here on Saturday morning.  That should make my weekend a little easier... not to mention the Newsletter!

A minor note to kick this blog post off, as the Buffalo Sabres missed one game's worth of action from defenseman Tyler Myers, who dealt with a lower-body injury mid-week and was able to return on Friday night.

Only one game off the books for Mike in this post, the injury wasn't serious enough to cost him too much time.  Mike will have another entry, which I might save some stats for.

It made some pretty big waves in some of my mid-week reading, when Oilers defenseman Justin Schultz was scratched in a game in the week. The Oilers team defense has been rather suspect this season and there are some high expectations from this youngster and the team was hoping that the scratch would spur him on. It didn't. The Oilers dropped their next decision on Friday night in St. Louis.

Schultz has been Stacey C.'s best defenseman this season, but he hasn't been good enough for the Edmonton coaching staff.  With 10 points in 23 games, you could argue that he has underachieved and Stacey's defense is well-below average this year.

A couple of notes from Florida from Week Eight, as Roberto Luongo had to leave a mid-week start, working on a shutout, with an upper-body injury. Luongo suffered the injury making a desperation save in the game. Also, on Friday, forward Jussi Jokinen was held out of the line-up with a bout of the flu. Both players are listed as out day-to-day, neither expected to be out too long. In Luongo's absence, however, his replacement, Al Montoya, has stepped up admirably, finishing the shutout earlier in the week and picking up another win on Friday.

Luongo has been far from great for Stuart this year and Jokinen has been sub-par for Leo at the same time, but when you look at the Panthers as a whole, you're not seeing a great deal of confidence and a good contender for a top draft pick this Summer.

Much like the Buffalo post above, the same sort of thing happened in New Jersey with another somewhat common healthy scratch, as the Devils sat defenseman Eric Gelinas for another game mid-week. Gelinas has found himself in the press box a few times already this season and might still find his way back.

So, that's one game off the books for Wilton, who hasn't had a great start to the year and is likely looking forward to the Waiver Draft.  His team sits in 19th going into Saturday and is 4 points clear from having a better pick in that draft.

A mysterious upper-body injury has sidelined New York Islanders dynamo defender Johnny Boychuk, who missed out on Friday night's game and is now due to miss Saturday night's game with the same ailment.  In the reading that I have done early on Saturday, albeit limited reading, there really wasn't much available for the injury, but he is now listed as out day-to-day.

Bad news for Wyllie's side, as Boychuk has been one of his best players this season, already have picked up 14 points from the back end.  The injuries have really piled up for Wyllie this season and his side has dropped to near the bottom.

Obviously, there needed to be some messages sent in the Ottawa dressing room in Week Eight, as both Milan Michalek and Mika Zibanejad were both scratched this week, the latter being scratched twice. It's true, neither player has excelled this season, Michalek with 7 points and Zibanejad with only 6.  The Sens are near the bottom of their division and are desperate for a boost somewhere.

Tony and Stacey M. are expecting to have both players in the Ottawa line-up on Saturday against the Lightning, but I'm not sure if they are expecting many points.  Both teams are in the top 10 of the standings and are in the mix for the money, so it will be interesting to see whether or not either players gets substituted next week.

The biggest injury news of the week came out of St. Louis, as their designated number one goalie, Brian Elliott went down with a knee injury in a 3-2 loss to Ottawa and when he left the game, Elliott was up 2-0 at the time. The timeframe has been reported as being out week-to-week.  Jake Allen has been good in relief of Elliott so far this season and the team has also considered some insurance, just in case Elliott is out for a long time, signing Martin Brodeur to a tryout during the week.  Elliott was placed on the IR on Wednesday, so he should be eligible to return on Tuesday next week and the team will make their decision on Brodeur then.

Huge blow to Clayton, who is in the money going into Saturday's action, as his goaltending tandem has been trying to keep pace with the leaders.  If Elliott is out for a while, it could be a pretty big blow to his chances of catching the top two teams.

The Tampa Bay Lightning decided to scratch young forward Jonathan Drouin again on Wednesday night, which has kept an interesting string of visits to the press box alive for the highly-touted prospect. Drouin only has 9 points in 16 games for the Lightning and hasn't exactly performed to the standards of his junior hockey days, but the Lightning are being patient, as they chase down the Canadiens for the division lead.

I would have to believe that Drouin would dress against the Senators on Saturday night, which would be good news for Dale C., as he starts the day in 4th place.  Drouin has been Dale C.'s worst forward in his group, so I would wonder if there will be any consideration for a drop there.

The Winnipeg Jets had a pair of injuries to work through in the week, as defenseman Tobias Enstrom missed the entire week with a lower-body injury, while Mathieu Perreault missed some time in the week with an upper-body injury, but did come back on Friday night for the game against the Bruins.  Enstrom is still considered day-to-day, but the Jets are finished for the week, so he will have some extra recovery time before Week Nine.

Enstrom took a few games away from Allan's side this week, which aided Allan's bid for the Basement Dweller for Week Eight and now leads the race, while Perreault didn't help Mike's team, who is only 4 points up on Allan's side in the race.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.