Draft Player Scratches (Feb 26)

In an odd set of circumstances last night, during the Thrashers game against the Panthers, the score being only 1-0 Florida, Ondrej Pavelec, the Thrashers' starting goalie, pulled himself out of the game, leaving Chris Mason to fill in for the final two periods.  On Saturday morning, the word is that Pavelec did suffer a minor injury, of the undisclosed variety, and didn't want to return to the game.  At this point, this is all we know.

Bad news for Stuart G., who is currently racing for the last money spot with a couple of teams, losing his only active goaltender at the moment will hurt badly.  If the injury is minor, I would suspect that only one start may be missed, but that'll be a wait-and-see situation.

After taking a high hit from Penguins' newcomer, Matt Niskanen, it appears that the Hurricanes' captain, Eric Staal, may have suffered a major upper-body injury, with whispers that it could be in the concussion variety, but nothing has been confirmed yet. Staal has apparently not made the trip up to Montreal, where the Hurricanes will play tonight, likely staying back for some more tests.  Stay tuned for more updates...

This is bad news for Kristy and Don, as they are one of the only teams that might be able to catch Allan S. in the standings and if the fears about Staal's injury are realized, a 3rd round pick, playing better than, will be a major loss going forward.

Speaking of the Staal brothers, Marc Staal was not able to go for the Rangers on Friday night, as they took on the Capitals. Staal was held out of the line-up after suffering a knee injury against the Hurricanes on Tuesday.  The stalwart defenseman suffered a twisted knee and was likely held out of the line-up for precautionary matters and should be considered out day-to-day for the time being.

With the uncertainty of injury reporting, it's hard to say how bad this injury may turn out for Dale B. in the long run.  Dale sits in 6th place in the standings, 17 points out of the money going into Saturday night, but the loss of a defenseman won't hurt his chances all that much at the moment.  I don't even expect Staal to be out for that long either.

An upper-body injury suffered against the Penguins on Wednesday night was the culprit for keeping defenseman Dan Boyle out of the Sharks' line-up on Friday night. Boyle did try practicing on Friday morning, but was deemed unready to go, but it doesn't sound like the injury is too serious, but with the Sharks being in a more comfortable position in the Western Conference standings this morning, I would imagine that they won't rush him back, until they run into some choppy situations.

This doesn't sound like a severe injury either, which could mean better things for Ryan M., who does have a seemingly outside shot at the third segment prize.  Ryan is tied for 8th in the standings, going into Saturday's action, 26 points out of 1st place, but he'll need Boyle back quickly for a major San Jose run to make that happen.

Everything was looking very good for the return of Mike Green to the Capitals' line-up on Friday night, he was dressed, he made it into the game, but in only his second shift on the ice, Green took a vicious hit to the head from the Rangers' Derek Stepan and had to leave the game again. Green was just recovering from an inner-ear trauma and we are all still awaiting word as to whether that injury was aggravated or there is a new diagnosis on the way. Either way, it doesn't look good for Green at the moment.

Things were looking good for Larry D., trying to save himself from a free fall, but his best defenseman has taken a turn, likely for the absolute worst, which may have him competing for the basement of the third segment, where he currently sits tied for 17th with only 56 points.

Link to the Injury/News Page