Friday Morning Pick-Up

Flu season continues in Boston, as it claimed Aaron Ward for Boston's game against Anaheim on Thursday night. Ward, a Box 29 defenseman, will likely be a game-time decision for the Bruins' next game, which is a Saturday matinee, at home to Washington.

Well, I don't know about you, but I'm a tad shocked. Last night, Sergei Samsonov, a Box 21 forward, missed his first game of the season... his first game. The oft-injured forward in years past, has had himself a pretty good year so far, but he is now sidelined with an upper body injury. The injury is still rather hush-hush, so we don't know what the extent of it is, as of yet.

Fueling the trade rumour fire, Marek Svatos was a healthy scratch for the Avalanche on Thursday night. Svatos, a Draft pick of Benson's, could be considered to be having an underachieving season, but with no usual number one or number two centre in the line-up, it should be pretty difficult to have the regular season a winger like Svatos is known to have. If he isn't traded soon, he should be back in the line-up right away.

Well, with a little digging, I still came up empty as to why Joel Lundqvist was out of the Stars' line-up on Thursday night, so we'll have to call it a healthy scratch. Lundqvist has been a healthy scratch in games previous, so it isn't terribly out of the question. Does this enrage the trade rumour fire as well? The Box 8 forward is scheduled to be a UFA this summer... I thought I'd throw a log on.

Reports out of Panthers camp is that Cory Stillman took a puck off his ankle in yesterday's morning skate and the ankle was hurt badly enough to keep him out of the line-up against the Rangers on Thursday night. Stillman, a Draft pick of Chris', has seen some time on the shelf already this season and will likely be re-evaluated today to see how long he'll be out for with this new injury.

The Predators decided to scratch Ville Koistinen yet again on Thursday night, as the disgruntled defender waits for a trade out of Nashville. The Predators did reportedly try to play him as a forward in practice, but that likely didn't go over too well with Koistinen. Expect him to be dealt in the next few days.

After claiming Mark Bell off of waivers this week, the Rangers have yet to insert him into the line-up. Bell, a Box 24 forward, was a healthy scratch for the second consecutive Rangers game since being claimed and it looks as though the Rangers are contemplating putting him on waivers again, in order to send him to the minors. If that is the case, the Leafs will have first crack at Bell on the wire.

The Penguins continued their roster shuffle, as they sent Janne Pesonen back down to the minors, while placing Chris Minard on waivers to head back down and called up Tim Wallace to take their place. Pesonen is the only pool player among the three and he didn't figure into the Penguins' last game that he was called up for. There is no word yet as to whether or not Sidney Crosby will be ready to go tonight in Chicago.

By now, I think you would have seen the devastating elbow that Islanders defenseman, Brendan Witt, gave to Niklas Hagman last night. It's on YouTube, go look it up. Anyways, Hagman crumbled to the ice, early in the third period and didn't return with what looks to be a concussion, but we'll just call it an upper body injury for now. Hagman's bell was certainly rung and Witt should be disciplined after the fact.

The Capitals were happy to see the return of Viktor Kozlov to the line-up on Thursday night, except for maybe Michael Nylander, who found himself watching the game from the press box to make room for Kozlov. Nylander has also been mentioned in a number of trade rumours out of Washington, as the team feels that they are already stocked up well with centres. He is a certain possibility of moving out before March 4th.

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