Sunday, November 27, 2011

Sheet Player News (Nov. 27)

It wasn't a good night for the Dallas Stars, losing their number one keeper and they also lost Box 13 defenseman Trevor Daley to an upper-body injury. It was later revealed that the injury was a muscle strain in his back, so this could be an injury that keeps him out of the line-up for an extended period of time. It could certainly be something that would be considered day-to-day, but I would imagine that he could be up for upwards of a week, while he just waits for the pain to subside.

Some injuries around the Panthers kept some of the regular scratches in the line-up for an extra few days or so, but the rotation appears to be back in service, as Box 29 defender Keaton Ellerby was a healthy scratch again for the club, as they took on the Lightning in Tampa.  Ellerby has not done a great job of keeping a job around the club these days, but he is still getting plenty of opportunities, rather than being sent down to the minors.  Between himself and Erik Gudbranson, the team is able to teach their youth a bit more about big league defense from the press box and give them time to apply those lessons on the ice.

On Sunday morning, the old switcheroo was pulled on the Senators line-up, involving a pair of young forwards, both players on the selection sheet. Heading down to the minors for some more minutes is Box 25 forward Stephane Da Costa, who has only 5 points in 22 games and coming up from the minors is Box 21 forward Nikita Filatov, who has 1 assist in six games with the Senators this year.  The Sens are expecting to have Filatov in the line-up when they go against the Hurricanes this afternoon.

On Saturday afternoon against the Rangers, Box 24 forward Andreas Nodl suffered an upper-body injury and didn't return to the game.  There was no immediate word as to the severity of the injury and I don't think I could comment on the play itself, since I didn't see it.  We'll await word on his injury, but he wasn't a very popular player in the pool and he has been a healthy scratch a number of times already this year, that even if he was taken, it would have been wise to trade him away by this point.

Much like the situation in Florida that I had already written about this morning, the San Jose Sharks continued their young defensive rotation on Saturday night for their game against the Canucks, as Box 14 defenseman Justin Braun was out of the line-up again.  Braun is in a rotation with Jason Demers and neither player has been able to produce offensively in a high-pressure situation, one that will keep them in the Sharks' line-up, if they can put some points on the board.  Both players have shown flashes of offensive brilliance in the past, but they haven't been able to channel that sort of offense this season.

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