Draft Player News (Feb. 17)

Scary moment in the game between the Dallas Stars and Calgary Flames, when Jamie Benn got caught with Marc Giordano's skate blade in the leg, which forced the dynamic scoring forward to leave the ice with a trail of blood. Benn was unable to return to the game and there wasn't much of an update when the game had finished.  If the injury is anything more serious than just a simple laceration of the flesh, I'll have an update.  If it is something more, it could be fairly long-term for the Stars to deal with.

John P. has lost some ground on the top 10 race this week and if he has lost Benn for any significant amount of time, that could pretty much sink his hopes for a top half finish.  We'll keep an eye out on this, as this may impact the Stars' decision for the trade deadline as well.

The Philadelphia Flyers went into Thursday night's game against the Sabres already down a defenseman in Andrej Meszaros, as mentioned yesterday and then Jaromir Jagr was a late scratch to the line-up, due to a bout of the flu.  Jagr should likely be good to go when the Flyers hit the ice again, Saturday afternoon against the Penguins.  It wasn't like the Flyers missed him on Thursday night, they were still able to thump the Sabres, 7-2, without him.

That's not a game that you would like to see your player miss, especially when he is one of the all-time leading scorers in league history, but Scott G. didn't have Jagr in the line-up, which has gone a little further to add insult to injury and his season.  Scott now sits in 17th, thanks to a truly unlucky season.

In the thumping of the Sabres, the injury bug continued to bite the Flyers, as they lost the services of forward Daniel Briere, who left the game with a shoulder injury and non-pool player Tom Sestito, who left with a lower-body injury.  Briere left the game early in the 1st period with the injury, not to return, but there hasn't been any update, early on Friday morning, but if it is something significant, it will certainly be updated here on the blog.  Briere is one of those injury-prone players that is generally worth avoiding, despite his scoring pace.

Brenda F. has one of the six pool teams still in single-digits for weekly scoring in Week Twenty and losing another player to injury is not going to help her team's cause.  Brenda dropped out of the top 10 this week and now sits 9 points out of 10th.

Finally, the Winnipeg Jets were without young defenseman Zach Bogosian, who was unable to go against the Minnesota Wild, because of an upper-body injury.  There hasn't been much reported about his injury, other than he was unable to take the morning skate on Thursday and missed out on the game against the Wild.  His status for Friday night's game against the Bruins is likely still in the air, but I would imagine that he would be doubtful, unless his upper-body injury is actually the flu.

This injury has an effect on the money race, as Stacey C., who currently sits in 3rd place, has Bogosian on his team and is trying to stay ahead of 4th place Stuart G., holding a slight 1-point lead going into Friday's action.  If Bogosian misses out on another game, that's one less weapon in Stacey's artillery to fend off a standings attack from below.