Friday, March 26, 2010

Busy Thursday Night Scratching Post

Thrashers forward, Todd White, suffered an undisclosed upper-body injury this week and the team is only disclosing that he'll likely miss a little bit more than last night's game against the Maple Leafs. Also, it sounds like Slava Kozlov will be missing more time than just being a healthy scratch, as he reportedly took a puck to the face last weekend and has suffered a head injury. He won't be able to go for another 4-to-5 days. Remarkably, the Thrashers are still in the Eastern Conference playoff hunt, even after trading away Ilya Kovalchuk to the Devils. Crazy.

An illness was the reason Dave Bolland was out of the Blackhawks line-up, according to a few of my good Twitter sources yesterday. Of course, something like that doesn't keep a player out for too long. I would expect him to be ready to go for the weekend match-ups, but with the Blackhawks clinching their playoff berth officially on Thursday night, they may not rush him back.

The Dallas Stars are going to be the next team out of the Playoff Pool race soon, so it looks like they're going to continue their healthy scratch shuffle on their blueline until the season ends. I'm not sure if this means they intend to play spoilers, but whatever. On Thursday night, Jeff Woywitka made his return to the injury list with another trip to the press box. I really can't look into it anymore than that.

Little bit of ball dropping here, as Los Angeles Kings defenseman, Matt Greene, missed his second consecutive game on Thursday night, also missing Wednesday night's game as well, with an upper-body injury. Greene suffered the injury after taking a high, hard hit against Colorado, the same one that had Darcy Tucker suspended for too much contact on an icing play. The Kings are in the thick of the playoff hunt and will likely miss Greene for however much time he's away.

A little bit of a surprising move by the Canadiens last night, as Glen Metropolit was a healthy scratch for the team against the Panthers. Metropolit has been one of the better surprises, scoring-wise, for the Habs this season, but he ended up being in the press box for a game. The Canadiens beat up on the Panthers, 4-1, so I guess the question will be raised, "will he play again right away after being scratched for a win?" Metropolit has been added to the Playoff Pool rosters, so I hope he gets playing again.

Well, unless you're reading this blog post today, we have a bit of a landmine player on the Playoff Pool in Robert Lang. I know Lang hasn't been in the Coyotes line-up much lately, but he had a pretty decent season in Phoenix, so he was added to the Playoff Pool roster. I have read that Lang is out indefinitely with a lower-body injury, but he has been skating this week, so it might not be all bad. I guess word from the team is that he's week-to-week and might be ready for the playoffs, but I'd be weary of picking him.

The Capitals are still running with their rotational scratches of defenders and veterans, as Jeff Schultz was again in the press box for a game. Some of these guys who have been a regular scratch this season should be fairly rested going into the long playoff stretch drive, so it really does have the makings of being a clever plan, in my opinion. It's just really annoying to feel obligated to write a new post each time a player re-enters the injury list.

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