Sheet Player News (Jan. 13)

The Ducks are still struggling to find some consistent play out of their forwards under the watchful eye of Bruce Boudreau, which means there are still a few shuffles left in this deck, before something drastic has to happen. Box 9 forward Kyle Palmieri was a healthy scratch on Thursday night, as the team took on the Flames, which doesn't come as a great surprise, since he has been toiling in the minors a fair bit this season as well. Palmieri had been recalled in the last week to try and help the struggling offense, but that hasn't worked out, nor did the scratch, as the Ducks lost 1-0 in overtime.

It must been 'a return to the press box' night in the NHL on Thursday, as you will see below, some of the regular suspects have made their way back into their respective coach's doghouse after some good stretches of games with ice-time. Blackhawks defenseman Sami Lepisto had a pretty good run of his own, but he couldn't avoid the rotation back upstairs, having yet to register a point in 11 games played this year.  The argument could be made that he isn't getting points for a lack of consistent ice-time or he isn't getting consistent ice-time for his complete lack of points.  Either way, he'll return to the line-up eventually, get removed at the end of the week and then get put back on the list, only to have his name plastered back on the blog.

It was a return to the press box for Dallas Stars defenseman Adam Pardy, as his team took on the Kings on Thursday. Pardy still hasn't given the Stars what they have asked of him with his off-season signing for some significant money and now their large investment is back upstairs, watching the game from above. In 22 games played this season, Pardy has only been able to register 1 assist, turning out to be a real bust of a signing.  This will likely turn out to be a regular occurrence for the club and the player down the stretch.

It took a little while to have the rotation come back to him, but Box 12 defenseman Alec Martinez was back in the press box as a healthy scratch on Thursday night, as the Kings took on the Dallas Stars. Martinez was a regular up in the press box during the first segment of the season, but the second segment has seemingly gone his way, with a bit more confidence in him. Unfortunately, that only lasted so long, with the return to press box popcorn on Thursday. In 23 games this season, Martinez has 2 goals.

I couldn't see much reason as to why Coyotes defenseman Michal Rozsival was held out of the line-up for their game against the Red Wings on Thursday night, so the immediate thought is that it is a healthy scratch or possibly a maintenance day, but there really has been no confirmation going either way to this point, that I can see.  The veteran defender has only figured into 16 games this year, because of injury, and has only registered 3 assists, so there is enough reason to think either maintenance or healthy scratch, but without really knowing, it's hard to tell whether or not he'll be back in the line-up any time soon.  Stay tuned.