Sheet Player News (Mar. 31)

The Colorado Avalanche haven't seen a great deal out of Box 13 defenseman Ryan Wilson of late, having no points and a -2 in his last five outings, Wilson was made into a healthy scratch on Friday night, as the team took on the Flames in a key battle for their playoff lives.  The move seemed to have paid off, as the Avalanche were quite good against Calgary and pulled out a 4-1 win.  If the Avalanche do feature in the playoffs this year, they will need Wilson to do something at the Spring Dance and maybe some poolies will need that as well, since he's in Box 9 on the sheet.

A couple of injuries to the Oilers blueline on Friday night, as both Box 12 defenseman Ladislav Smid and Box 13 defenseman Jeff Petry left the game against the Kings. Smid suffered a neck injury after taking a hit from Dustin Brown, while Petry took a puck to the face and he left the game with facial contusions. There was no further word on Smid's condition, but Petry may be okay to go again on Sunday, although, there really is no need for him to be in, as they are just playing for pride now. Neither player was popular in the pool, so there's no real impact here.

The rotation continues for the Florida Panthers, as Marco Sturm made his way back up to the press box on Friday night.  Sturm had returned to the line-up last weekend and had played through most of the week, but Friday saw his return upstairs.  I would imagine that he will return for the team's next game and will possibly also get a scratch in the final games next week, in preparation for the playoffs.  This is just a heads up, as we've seen this a few times already in the last month.

More healthy scratches from the Nashville Predators, as they prepare for their playoff run this year. On Friday night against the Red Wings, the Predators decided to sit Box 8 forward Brandon Yip and Box 14 defenseman Ryan Ellis, who haven't sat since last week, but have been regular scratches all season.  The Predators are now in conservation mode, to a point, still picking up wins while resting players for the stretch run and things look to be going really well.  The Predators were also able to welcome back a few players from injury, like Martin Erat, Jordin Tootoo and Roman Josi, who all missed a game or nine with injury of late, so it's all adding up.