Player Notes in the Draft (Dec 6)

The Edmonton Oilers were mired in some .500 hockey, looking to gain some traction in the Pacific Division/Western Conference and it was getting to be the time where the coaching staff was to point some fingers. On Thursday night, it was defenseman Jeff Petry, who found himself up in the press box as a healthy scratch for the game against division rivals, the Colorado Avalanche. In 29 games, Petry had scored 2 goals and 4 assists, but his entire game was under the microscope and the reason why he sat. Despite an 8-2 explosion over the Avs, Petry is projected to figure back into the line-up on Saturday night.

It was not a welcomed night off for a player on Doug K.'s team, which is on the move, closing the gap between himself and the rest of the teams in the lower part of the standings.  Of the last five teams in the standings, his team leads with 17 points this week, which is 5 points better than the next best teams.

Details were not readily available, but the Pittsburgh Penguins are saying that Pascal Dupuis left last night's game against the San Jose Sharks in the 2nd period with an undisclosed injury.  It looks like we will have to wait and see what the diagnosis is before we make any real assumptions.  He'll be listed as day-to-day, until the Penguins say otherwise.

Holder of the last top half spot in the standings, Benson G. is in need of games played by Dupuis, as he craves recognition again in the Mover & Shaker paragraph in the Newsletter.  Benson is now 8 points out of 11th and 26 points out of the prizes.

Sounds like a bout of the flu was to blame for Michal Frolik's absence from the Winnipeg Jets' line-up on Thursday night, as they took a whoopin' from the Florida Panthers.  Hard to say, exactly, if the absence of one forward was enough to make that much of a difference, but it happened.  Frolik is listed as day-to-day and will likely figure back in to the line-up on the weekend.

Frolik belongs to Mike S. this year in the draft and his team is currently sitting in the bottom half of the standings, currently 16th, 11 points out of the top half.  Frolik has been decent for Mike this year, scoring 7 goals and 9 assists in 29 games in Winnipeg.