Thursday Night's Omissions

The Boston coaching staff announced on Wednesday that breakout forward, Milan Lucic, would miss Thursday's game against the Senators with an undisclosed injury and miss the game he did. Lucic, a Box 24 forward on the Sheet, is only out day-to-day with this unknown affliction. This season, Lucic has 26 points in 40 games with the Bruins and is a prime candidate to be picked up in the second Waiver Draft in a few weeks.

The Flames allowed Todd Bertuzzi to rest his sore back on Thursday night against the Islanders. This is the first game that Bertuzzi has missed this season, which has been great news for the bargain that the Flames signed him at. Last season, Bertuzzi only played 68 games with the Ducks, which was the highest amount of games he had seen in three seasons. The sore back shouldn't keep Bertuzzi out of the line-up for too long, it's probably just good for him to see some rest at this point in the season.

On Thursday, the Blue Jackets placed Pascal Leclaire on the Injured Reserve with a lower body injury. Leclaire, a Derek Draft pick this season, will miss at least a week with this injury, which doesn't bode well for him, as he's quickly been losing out on quality starts to rookie netminder, Steve Mason. There isn't a real diagnosis on the injury that Leclaire suffers from, so there isn't any idea on whether or not he'll be out for just the minimum week on the IR or more.

The Blackhawks returned a regular early season scratch back to the press box on Thursday night. Craig Adams had a solid streak of starts up until last night, but the Box 7 forward was sat against the Avalanche since Patrick Kane returned to the line-up from his ankle injury. This season, Adams has strung together 6 points in 24 games with the Blackhawks.

I couldn't find any information to say anything contrary to this so, I have come to the conclusion that Box 14 defenseman, Greg de Vries, was a healthy scratch on Thursday for the game against Pittsburgh. de Vries has not been very productive offensively this year and he probably got a night off to stop and think about what he could do better. This season, de Vries only has 4 points in 38 games with the Predators, likely losing more and more ice-time to the likes of Shea Weber and Ryan Suter.

Apparently, there has been some more swelling in Rick DiPietro's knee and he was unable to participate in the Islanders' game against the Flames on Thursday night. DiPietro has not been 100% yet this season, playing with several nagging injuries. There really isn't much more we can say to this, except possibly suggest that he take the rest of the year off, not to worry about playing, and become 100% for training camp. Also not participating in the game for Long Island was Box 30 defenseman, Freddie Meyer. He was scratched due to the return of Radek Martinek to the line-up.

The Flyers are expecting Daniel Briere back in the line-up tonight and to clear cap space for the expensive forward, they are looking to move Lasse Kukkonen. Kukkonen was placed on Waivers on Thursday night, not participating in the game against Minnesota last night. If he clears waivers, he'll be sent down to the minors, likely with entry-level defenseman, Luca Sbisa.

Well, Jannik Hansen didn't have to wait long before coming back to the Canucks. He spent two days with the Manitoba Moose in the AHL before being called up and seeing Alexandre Bolduc go the other way. Hansen, who went on a good tear to start the season, really tailed off his offensive production and needed a kick in the pants with the demotion. With his linemates, Ryan Kesler and Alexandre Burrows having a good night against the Oilers, there is a chance that they can bring Hansen with them on a new streak.

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