Sheet Player News (Feb. 15)

After being a healthy scratch on the weekend, it sort of slipped my radar that Luke Adam of the Sabres was sent down to the minors, thus putting an exclamation point on how bad his season had turned after a rocket of a start.  Adam was enjoying a great start to the year with Jason Pominville and Thomas Vanek, but even half of the star pairing faded away into some injury problems and the Sabres, as a whole, went with the line.  Adam is likely just down in the minors to play himself back into some confidence, so I could see him returning before too long.

The Blue Jackets are still trying to find a consistent line-up these days and on Tuesday night, rookie Ryan Johansen found himself as a healthy scratch again for their game against the Blues.  Johansen has seen a number of chances in the Jackets line-up this season, coming in and being taken out of the line-up with some mild regularity, but as the team struggles and now with trade winds blowing fiercely around the team, everything else will be met with all kinds of skepticism and disbelief.  If you haven't written off the Jackets yet, all I can ask is 'why not?'

The losing streak for the Chicago Blackhawks is now becoming quite alarming, as they have now dropped nine games in a row, which is now the likely cause for some new faces finding their way to the press box in this streak. On Tuesday night in Nashville, it was Box 7 forward Michal Frolik's turn, along with Brendan Morrison, to take a turn upstairs to watch the game from above.  Frolik only has 13 points in 51 games for the Blackhawks this season, so even on production alone, making him into a scratch is certainly a reasonable decision.

Well, my prognostication about Jack Hillen has somewhat fallen on its face, as Hillen was a healthy scratch again for the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night, making him into somewhat of a disappointment at 6 points in 46 games for the club this season.  The Predators were certainly more inclined to use a lot more of their own youth than Hillen, who they snapped up off the open market in the Summer, which is just fine for the organization, but it may have hindered Hillen's usefulness, to a point.  Good on Ryan Ellis to start picking up points now that he is playing for the team on a regular basis.

Devils' Box 23 forward Nick Palmieri was called up from the minors on Tuesday to join the team for their visit to Buffalo, but he wasn't used in the line-up, ending up as a healthy scratch for the game.  There is no word as to whether or not Palmieri will feature in a game for the Devils in this recall, but he does have 7 points in 26 games for the club this season, so it has been an okay season, considering he has spent most of it down in the minors.  The team has acknowledged that he will be a featured part of the team down the road, so if this visit gives him anything, it's time with the coaches.