Friday, March 25, 2016

Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Mar 25)



The Anaheim Ducks were without a pair of players on Thursday night, as they took on the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Air Canada Centre, including pool forward Ryan Kesler, who was dealing with some personal matters.  The details are nil, except what we've already written down here, so everyone is in the dark about what's going on here.  He's day-to-day for right now, but given the nature of the hush-hush, I would think his availability for Saturday in Ottawa is questionable, as well.

It goes from bad to worse for Wes, whose team crumbled around him terribly, near the end of the second segment and full-on into the third segment of the season.  His team sits in 27th, 7 points back of 26th, and his dream of the PIM pool win faded away quickly in the last couple of weeks, as he now trails 1st place by 58 minutes.

The Boston Bruins reportedly lost the services of defenseman John-Michael Liles on Thursday night, but that's all that the team is really going to say at the moment.  Liles will stay back in Boston for evaluation and treatment, while the rest of the team will head to Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs on Saturday night.  Liles will be listed as out day-to-day for right now, but I would have to think that the Bruins will be cautious with any injury, leading up to the playoffs.

Stuart's team has a 13-point buffer, separating his side and 11th place, so staying in the top 10 would be ideal and certainly possible, if everything goes well.  This injury won't help though, but Liles hasn't exactly been pumping in the points since being activated from the Waiver Draft, only 5 points in 22 games.

The Dallas Stars have their playoff spot clinched and in tow now, so with the number of injuries they have been dealing with in the last few weeks, there's really no shame in taking some precautionary measures with those players who are not 100%.  Take for instance, Kris Russell, who is dealing with a lower-body issue, has missed time with it already, so the Stars decided that he could use a little extra rest and gave him the night off against the Coyotes.  He's day-to-day and will play when he feels like it.

For Troy, it might be more a matter of pride that his team doesn't earn any more Basement Dweller nods this year, but his team is in the running for another in Week Twenty-Five, only 1 point up on the worst week, so far.  Still, there are three nights left and Russell might play in San Jose tomorrow.

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