Sheet Player News (Dec. 15)

Just when we thought Jordan Caron would be inserted into the Bruins' line-up just a little bit more, he becomes a healthy scratch again, confined to the press box for Tuesday night's game against the Kings at home and then again on Wednesday night in Ottawa.  The Box 25 forward has not seen a great deal of action with the big club, 13 games, where he has scored 1 goal and added 2 assists.  He's not in a good spot at the moment, since the Bruins are not playing him much, nor do they feel he needs minutes in the AHL, so he's a bad fantasy investment at the moment.

It has been a little while since Sami Lepisto was mentioned on the blog. He had a couple good stretches of being a healthy scratch, then filling in on the blueline for the Blackhawks, but on Wednesday night, against the Wild, he was sent back up to the press box for the game. The 5-6 defensemen in Chicago may be getting shuffled more often than not these days, which may mean that Lepisto may feature on the sheet news a few more times this year. In 10 games, Lepisto has yet to pick up a point this season.

The Avalanche were without Box 8 forward Brandon Yip on Tuesday night against the Sharks, which was initially thought to be a healthy scratch, but it sounds more and more like there is a groin injury that is keeping him out.  Yip has been battling injury all season long and a groin ailment isn't helping his cause any this year.  In nine games played, Yip has not been able to register a point for his team yet, which gives the coaching staff enough reason to keep him out as a healthy scratch, but an injury seems likely as well.

The Panthers have been true to their word with rookie defenseman Erik Gudbranson, as he hasn't been sent back down to juniors, he has stayed up with the club since the start of the season. Unfortunately, that has meant a few games up in the press box, as he continues to adjust to the pace of the NHL.  It may have been wise to let the big defenseman go to the World Juniors for Team Canada for the holidays, which has been known to help a player's development, but the Panthers are in the thick of the Eastern Conference races and obviously feel that Gudbranson is ready to be a part of that.

The Minnesota Wild have seen a bit of a shuffle of players in and out of the line-up over the past couple of nights, with players getting healthy, players falling under the weather and then some scratches to help accommodate others. On Tuesday night in Winnipeg, forward Matt Cullen was out of the line-up, because of a bout of the flu, but he did manage to return to the ice on Wednesday night for their game against the Blackhawks. Coming out of the line-up for when Cullen arrived back, Box 9 forward Casey Wellman, who will now likely head back down to the minors before too long.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Nashville Predators announced that Box 7 forward Blake Geoffrion was healthy again after missing six games with an upper-body injury, so the team decided to send the young forward down to the AHL for the time being. This was not mentioned as a conditioning stint, since Geoffrion doesn't have to clear waivers to go down to the minors, the team can have him down there as long as they see fit, be it for a couple of games or a few weeks. IT will all certainly depend on how much they need Geoffrion at the moment.

On Tuesday night against the Panthers, Box 23 forward Nick Palmieri was a healthy scratch for the Devils after a fairly long stint with the big club, where he has played 23 games this season, scoring 4 goals and 3 assists.  On Wednesday night, Palmieri was actually playing for the team's AHL affiliate in Albany, which was kind of a surprise to many, as there wasn't much of an announcement saying that he was being demoted.  Palmieri is still young enough to not have to pass through waivers, but still, an announcement is usually a respected protocol.

On Tuesday night against the Buffalo Sabres, Box 20 forward Bobby Butler was a healthy scratch for the Senators, as he hasn't had a very productive year for the club: 6 points (2 goals and 4 assists) in 22 games.  Thanks to some new injury problems, which will be highlighted later on in the blog, Butler was able to re-join the line-up on Wednesday night to help play host to the Boston Bruins.  The Senators were beaten pretty good in the game and that might stem more from the other losses in the line-up, more than Butler returning to the line-up.

An undisclosed upper-body injury has kept Jets forward Alex Burmistrov from practice this week and he also missed out on Tuesday night's game against the Wild as well.  There has been no real update on Burmistrov's status over the last couple of days, but the reports that I have read say he's out on a day-to-day basis, but with the way that upper-body injuries have gone this year, it has a lot of people spooked, muttering concussion every once and a while.  At this point, there is no sign of any head injuries, it will just remain as an upper-body injury for now.