Player Notes in the Draft (Jan 17)

The Anaheim Ducks laid a sound beating upon the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night, but Jonas Hiller was not the goaltender of record, as he sat out of the game with a bout of the flu.  Hiller was listed as day-to-day and the team called up Fredrik Andersen to take the start, but I think it would be fair to assume that Hiller should be back in the crease when the Ducks take on the Blackhawks, in Chicago, tonight.

This would probably be considered a missed start for Hiller, which hurt Ryan M.'s total in Week Sixteen, but it is a small speed bump in the long season.  Ryan sits on the outside of the top half of the standings and made no moves at the Waiver Draft, believing that his team can still do good things, now that it's healthy.

Just a quick note about Tomas Tatar, who appeared to be a healthy scratch on Thursday night, as the Red Wings took on the New York Rangers.  Tatar was picked up in the second Waiver Draft this week by Kristy & Don and as much as he still isn't active on their roster, it is something to keep in mind, as the players go active next week.

In 38 games this season, Tatar has 10 goals and 9 assists.

Another favourite on the injury prone list, Edmonton Oilers forward Ales Hemsky sat out on Thursday night, as his team visited the Wild in Minnesota last night.  Hemsky is listed as out day-to-day with a bruised ankle, which he had reportedly suffered earlier in the week, playing against the Dallas Stars.

Also, in Thursday night's game against the Wild, Nail Yakupov suffered a head injury in the 2nd period and didn't return for the 3rd.  There was no immediate update on Friday morning, but there will likely be something on Friday afternoon, as the Oilers will have one of the early games on Hockey Day In Canada.

Out of the two players, only Hemsky belongs to a team in the money race, as he is on Brenda's team.  Brenda's squad sits in 7th, 6 points out of 4th place, so right in striking distance.  Hemsky was not dropped by Brenda this week, so if he is out for any significant amount of time, that will be a unproductive body.  Yakupov belongs to Stuart, who finally eclipsed the 300-point mark last night, down in 21st place.

With the goaltending landscape changing in Nashville the questions are abound of who is staying and who is going down to the minors and if Thursday night was any indication, it was Marek Mazanec who was a healthy scratch, as the Predators took on the Philadelphia Flyers.  Carter Hutton was the starter and the winner of the game, as Devan Dubnyk was unable to play, due to a late arrival, but it looks like Hutton may act as Dubnyk's back-up, going forward.

This was the leading reason why Clayton decided to drop Mazanec in the 2nd round of the Waiver Draft yesterday, taking new Los Angeles Kings back-up goalie, Martin Jones, in the process.  Clayton expects Mazanec to drop down to the AHL and has taken all precautions to make sure he has an active goalie in that place.

The Philadelphia Flyers had a bit of a scare this week, as Scott Hartnell blocked a shot earlier in the week against the Buffalo Sabres, hurting his ankle.  There were some fears that Hartnell may miss some time, but that wasn't going to be the case, as Hartnell did dress for Thursday night's game against the Predators, picking up an assist in the game.

He was added to the news/injury page, as it sounded rather questionable that he would play, but fortunately for Scott, Hartnell dressed and was productive at the same time.  Scott finished the night in 9th place, only 12 points out of 4th.