Draft Player News (Oct 21)

The Florida Panthers were without defenseman Ed Jovanovski on Thursday night against the Buffalo Sabres, due to a lower-body injury. The word is that the injury isn't major, but he remains questionable for Saturday's contest at home against the Islanders. The details are fairly limited, but it can be said that he wasn't on the ice for Friday's practice, which doesn't necessarily exclude him from action on the weekend. This injury will likely be touch-and-go for the Panthers, who are in no hurry to get him back, being as it is early in the season.

Jovanovski belongs to John P. in the pool this season and he is currently having an okay week, trying to work his way away from the basement dwellers in the pool.  John currently sits in 19th spot, only 11 points out of the top five, so he's not in bad shape, especially with 15 points to his name this week.

Scary moment for Mikko Koivu in Thursday night's game against the Oilers, as he was struck by teammate Dany Heatley's skate in the chin and opened him up pretty good.  The word is that Koivu received "lots" of stiches on his chin to close him up, but there has since been no word as to what his status will be for Saturday afternoon's contest in Vancouver.  If I had to guess, he'd be probable for the game, but there would be a lack of surprise if they held him out for a game or two, just to let the laceration heal up a bit before risk of opening it up.

Koivu is on Niesa S.'s team this season and her team is in the thick of the early race this year.  Her team currently ranks in 12th, only 3 points out of 6th place, 9 points out of 5th.  If the Finnish captain of the Wild can make it back for Saturday, there is nothing really taken away from Niesa's chances to move up the standings.

Also leaving his respective game on Thursday night was Scott Gomez, not finishing the Canadiens' contest against the Penguins. Gomez left with an upper-body injury and did not return to the game. According to the team on Friday afternoon, Gomez will undergo an MRI to check out the extent of the damage, but until then, we won't exactly speculate on the injury.  This is just something to pay close attention to on Friday afternoon.

It will be Wes M. who will be paying the most attention to the news when it drops, as he currently holds Gomez on his pool team this season.  Wes currently sits in the mix in the 14th position in the pool, 10 points out of 3rd place and Gomez would be a big part of climbing back in there, if at all possible.

Clarke MacArthur continues to have a rough start to the 2012 regular season, as he couldn't start the season on time because of a suspension and on Wednesday, he left the game against the Jets due to an undisclosed injury and this same injury kept him out of Thursday night's game in Boston as well.  MacArthur has only played in three games this season and will be counted on to help the team into the playoffs, since that is their end goal.

A rough start has also been the story for Brenda F. in the pool, but her team is starting to work their way out of the early funk, as her team is currently in the race for Mover and Shaker this week, already picking up 20 points through Thursday night's action.  Brenda's team is already 9 points up on 21st spot and 15 points up on last place.

Some general body soreness was enough to hold Mikael Samuelsson out of the Canucks line-up for their game against the Predators on Thursday night.  Samuelsson's absence is chalked up to more of a body maintenance day, trying to keep the veteran winger healthy for longer periods down the stretch.  He's currently listed as day-to-day, but I would imagine he'd be listed as probable for Saturday's game against the Wild.

Samuelsson's offensive contributions have been minor and Clayton C.'s team has suffered a little because of it, as the team continues to descend down the standings, going down from 6th, at the beginning of the week, to 7th after Thursday night's action, but the team is not out of the race, by any means, sitting 6 points out of 3rd place.