Massive Update on the Injury List

Wow! Between the Olympics ending, the schedule starting off with one game and then 12 games and then the trade deadline, it was crazy for roster and injury news, so I'm really going to have to play catch-up right now, not to mention having to polish off some of the trade analysis'.

Well, I'm going to try and have some order to this madness, so try and keep up. I'm going to combine both Draft and Sheet news, since I have a formula of presentation when I do it normally.

Starting with Tuesday... Patrice Bergeron of the Bruins was held out of the line-up against the Canadiens because of a minor groin problem. Reports are saying that Bergeron aggravated the groin injury during the Gold Medal game on Sunday and he is now listed as doubtful for tonight's game against the Maple Leafs in Toronto. He's still considered out day-to-day, which could be much worse, I suppose.

On the bright side of things in Boston, Box 30 defenseman, Mark Stuart returned from a broken finger.

Blue Jackets forward, Derrick Brassard, suffered what is reported to be a hand injury in the team's last game before the Olympic Break against the Blackhawks, but it wasn't able to heal sufficiently to get him back into the line-up immediately. Reports on Thursday morning suggest that he might not be ready to go for their next game on Saturday, listing him as being questionable.

A quick updated on Rostislav Klesla as well... he was supposed to be back in the Blue Jackets line-up in mid-January or early-February from an abdominal injury, but the initial six weeks that the team said that he would be out has now been moved to indefinitely, with a good chance of shutting him down for the rest of the season.

There was a bit of buzz around Fabian Brunnstrom and his omission from the Stars' line-up on Tuesday night when the team took on the Kings. Brunnstrom has been playing some suspect hockey of late and has seen the press box a few times already this season. It was adding up to the possibility of being dealt on Wednesday, but that wasn't to be. With no major deals on Wednesday, the Stars will have a decision to make on Brunnstrom, whether or not he makes it back into the line-up.

Newly-signed Steve Ott, newly-acquired Kari Lehtonen and Jere Lehtinen all re-joined the line-up on Tuesday, although Lehtonen just backed up Marty Turco for the game. There hasn't been any mention of when he'll see his first start with the team yet.

The Kings went back to the normal defense rotation on Tuesday night against the Stars, as Peter Harrold was the first player back up to the press box for the game. Harrold has been a regular on the rotation between playing and sitting. The Kings only picked up forwards at the trade deadline, so there is a good chance that they will still have the defenseman rotation through the rest of the season.

The Islanders were poised to make a deal or two on Wednesday, but fell short of any sort of any expectations they had going in. Sean Bergenheim was scratched on Tuesday with the expectation that they were holding him out of the line-up for health reasons, working out a trade with him in it. That didn't turn out to be the case at all and he'll likely be back into the line-up tonight in Atlanta.

Everyone was also expecting to see a goalie get shipped out of Long Island, but franchise goalie, Rick DiPietro, continued to suffer from swelling in his knee and he'll now sit for a week or more, meaning that the team was handcuffed with their current goalie situation. Dwayne Roloson and Martin Biron will continue to man the post for a while now.

It was supposed to be only a mild quad strain for Trent Hunter and he ended up dressing for the Islanders on Tuesday night against the Blackhawks, but he finished the game early and it was announced on Wednesday that he will miss the next couple weeks with the injury.

Another Olympic injury aggravation, as Marian Gaborik did not immediately return to the Rangers line-up on Tuesday night, as he's also been dealing with a hip/groin problem before and after the Olympics. Gaborik had a pretty good tournament for the Slovaks, coming up short for the Bronze, but he returned not being 100%. The Rangers are hosting the Penguins tonight, but I haven't seen any word if he's ready to go yet.

Defenseman Michael Del Zotto also didn't play on Tuesday because of his chest laceration, but it does sound like he'll be good to go tonight against the Penguins. There is some good news in New York anyways.

Sabres forward, Paul Gaustad, suffered an upper-body injury, which is believed to be a hand injury, and he'll now be out of the line-up for three or four days (I'm calling it a week). Gaustad suffered the injury in a fight against the Penguins' Mike Rupp. If its only going to be a week on the shelf, I don't imagine that any of the bones are broken, rather its likely just a good contusion that doesn't let him grip his stick tightly.

The Colorado Avalanche were a busy team at the deadline on Wednesday, making a number of deals, but it was somewhat surprising to see Kyle Quincey held out of the line-up against the Ducks the same night. There was no mention of an injury in the post-game recap, so I imagine he was just a healthy scratch coming out of the break. The Avalanche play the Coyotes on Thursday night, so we'll see if he gets slotted back in right away.

Box 14 defenseman Ladislav Smid was diagnosed with a bulging disc in his neck on Monday and he'll miss at least the week's games, missing Wednesday's re-opener against the Blackhawks already. The disc is doing some damage to his nerves in his neck and he'll need to be re-evaluated before he can re-join the line-up and there is a possibility of having surgery, which might knock him out for much longer.

Mike Comrie also missed the game on Wednesday because he was a healthy scratch. Comrie must not be in the coach's good graces at the minute, so a game in the press box was his punishment on Wednesday night.

It was also announced that Sheldon Souray will now miss the remainder of the season after the hand that was surgically repaired suffered an infection and required more surgery on Wednesday. There was a small chance that Souray was going to get moved to another team with the intention of playing in the next couple weeks, but that has now been dashed completely.

It sounds like Steve Bernier might be on the shelf for the Canucks for a while, as he went back home to Vancouver with still four games to go on the team's extended road trip. Bernier has been suffering from a groin injury this season, which the Olympic Break didn't heal sufficiently before the restart of the season. Bernier must have aggravated the injury in the first game back on Tuesday against Columbus. I would imagine he'll be shut down for at least the week that the Canucks are still away from home, if not more.

The Capitals paid a pretty low price to get Milan Jurcina back from the Blue Jackets on Wednesday in a deal, but that is in large part due to the fact that Jurcina will be out of the line-up for about four weeks with a sports hernia. This should have him back in the line-up for a week or so before the playoffs. Jurcina was re-acquired to put some size back on the blueline for the playoffs and the team hopes he'll be ready for then.

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