Sheet Player News (Oct 9)

It's not exactly a blazing start to his rookie season, as Ryan Johansen was a victim of the healthy scratch for the second Blue Jackets game of the season on Saturday night. Johansen, tipped by many to be one of the best rookies in the 2012 class, wasn't pushed in the second half of a home-and-home series against the Predators this weekend.  The kid has plenty of potential to do some good things this year, but the Blue Jackets are going to push for a playoff spot, so they'll need some reliable sources of offense this year, with some responsible defense to match.

Box 13 defenseman Sami Lepisto was a healthy scratch for the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night, making way for John Scott in the line-up for some extra grit and toughness on the back end. Lepisto, added to the sheet as a possible spark plug of offense to the Blackhawks blueline, is now likely sitting in the 6a/6b spot with Scott, which doesn't mean good things for the Finnish defender.

Keaton Ellerby has taken quite a while to develop in the Panthers system as an everyday defenseman and it appears that his development has hit some speed bumps along the way. The Box 29 defenseman was a healthy scratch on Saturday night, as Florida took on the Islanders, which is really hurting his chances of being a real fantasy player this year for the cats.  Ellerby will likely sit as the seventh defenseman for a while, but chances will come in a long NHL season, he'll just have to make the most of his.

The Ottawa Senators were embarrassed by the Red Wings in their season opener on Friday, so on Saturday in Toronto, they made a quick change, sending Box 20 forward Bobby Butler up to the press box for non-pool player, Zenon Konopka, but that really didn't help their cause at all, still losing again to their provincial rivals.  The Senators' plan this season was to storm the league with a little bit more offense, making up for their lack of defensive depth, so Butler will have to be much better, if the team wants to succeed down the road this year.  He'll be back in soon, I'm sure.

It was a rough game for Box 13 defenseman Michal Rozsival on Saturday night against the Sharks, not only were the Coyotes getting lit up on the scoreboard, the Czech defender took a Patrick Marleau shot to the face, which needed some immediate attention. Rozsival did not return to the game and will be re-evaluated on Sunday. The Coyotes play again on Tuesday night in Dallas, so we'll call him questionable for making a return for that game.

Lots of surprised posts on Saturday afternoon when it was announced that Box 25 forward Marcus Johansson was going to be up in the press box for the Capitals home opener against the Hurricanes in the evening.  Johansson had been working a lot on the team's top line, but it appears that there is more than meets the eye, as the youngster sat.  I can't see this being a regular issue for the Johansson, as he should be able to figure in and make a difference with the team, this should just be considered a hiccup.