Sheet Player News (Nov. 17)

There is still some displeasure running through the Buffalo Sabres coaching staff about the blueline these days, as Marc-Andre Gragnani made a return to the press box on Wednesday night, with Tyler Myers returning to the line-up from being a healthy scratch. Gragnani, a Box 30 defenseman, has been a healthy scratch already this season, but since his production hasn't incredibly potent and there is likely some discussion about his overall game, he found his way back up to the press box for a game, trying to spark his play. Gragnani has 1 goal and 5 assists in 16 games this year, which isn't too bad, but could be a touch better.

The Canadiens blueline has been subject to all kinds of injury already in this 2012 season and it continued this week, as Jaroslav Spacek left Monday night's game with an undisclosed injury and was unable to play on Wednesday night, as his team took on the Hurricanes. Details are few and far between at the moment, so for the time being, we'll consider him day-to-day, until otherwise noted.  Spacek has 3 assists in 12 games this season and does not rank very well in Box 28 of the sheet pool to this point.

The New Jersey Devils finally welcomed Ilya Kovalchuk back into their line-up on Wednesday night after missing five games with a groin problem, but that meant a player had to come out of the line-up to make room for the return and drawing the short straw was Box 22 forward Mattias Tedenby. Tedenby has not had a productive start to the season, having only 3 assists in 16 games for the Devils, ranking near the bottom of Box 22 of the pool. His lack of production would make him a good candidate to trade him out, especially with the box leaders already at 13 points.

On Tuesday night, Box 25 forward Eric Tangradi was made into a healthy scratch with the return of Tyler Kennedy from the injured reserve and on Wednesday, the Penguins decided to demote the young forward, back to Wilkes-Barre Scranton of the AHL.  Tangradi managed to appear in two games for the Penguins in his stay with the big club, failing to register a point or make an impact with the coaching staff, trying to give him reason enough to stay with the club.  With the Penguins slowly getting healthy again and Tangradi slipping down the depth chart, it may be a while before we see him up with the NHL club again.