Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Sheet Player News (Mar. 7)

Thanks to the rash of injuries that have hit the Calgary Flames, the team was forced to have defenseman Anton Babchuk back in the line-up for a game, playing as the seventh defenseman. The word is that the coaching staff would prefer not to have him in the line-up, so on Tuesday night, he was back to being a healthy scratch and back on the injury/news page on the website. Hence, his return to the blog posts. I think it would be very fortunate for him, if he was to find some more ice-time before the end of the regular season.

It doesn't look like Blue Jackets rookie Ryan Johansen will get too much more ice-time down the stretch here, as he was a healthy scratch again for the team on Tuesday night for their game against the Coyotes.  It is quickly becoming apparent that his inclusion during this NHL season may have been premature, at best, and probably would have benefited from another season in junior, especially since he was unable to help the Blue Jackets gain any sort of traction in the 2012 regular season.

The Nashville Predators had a couple of familiar faces in the press box on Tuesday night against the Kings, as Box 8 forward Brandon Yip and Box 12 defenseman Jack Hillen were both scratched again. Yip has been a consistent scratch between Colorado and Nashville this season, while Hillen hadn't lived up to his potential this season with Nashville and has had a number of scratched games since the middle of the season.  Neither player has a lot of fantasy value in the last month of the season, so it would be best not to bet heavily on them.

An injury has befallen upon New York Rangers forward Brandon Dubinsky and it seems to be rather cloudy as to the nature of the injury. The Rangers had initially called it a hand injury, but it looks like it could be a sinus problem after being struck in the face in Tuesday night's game against the Devils. Either way, the Rangers say Dubinsky is day-to-day for right now and I'll just have him listed as an upper-body injury, so it can be vague enough to encompass both a hand or sinus injury.

Much in the same idea as the Predators news post above, there were a couple of familiar faces in the Sharks' press box on Tuesday night, as the team took on the Oilers at home in the tank, as both Benn Ferriero and Jason Demers were scratched from the game.  Ferriero has not been a popular forward for the Sharks and with the new acquisitions from the trade deadline in the line-up and some bodies finally coming around to being healthy again, he won't see much time this season.  As for Demers, there seems to be a bit of a defenseman rotation there and Demers was back in the line-up on the weekend, so he came off the news page on Monday, but he was placed back on, as it was his turn to sit.

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