Player Notes in the Draft (Feb 28)

The Carolina Hurricanes lost the services of forward Alex Semin in Thursday night's game against the Dallas Stars, having suffered a lower-body injury early in the game and not being able to return. On Friday morning, there was no indication to the severity of the injury, but his condition will be monitored for the weekend. The Hurricanes will be in Los Angeles for their next game, against the Kings on Saturday afternoon.

Semin belongs to Scott, who sits in 6th after Thursday night, sitting only 1 point out of 4th and 6 points out of 1st.  Not a good time to have one of your hottest forwards go down with injury, if there ever was a good time.  Scott is also in the race in the third segment, only 7 points back of the lead, back in 4th place.

Another injury on Thursday night, as Edmonton Oilers forward Nail Yakupov suffered an ankle injury after getting in the way of teammate Justin Schultz' shot against the Minnesota Wild.  The Oilers will likely say more about Yakupov's injury before practice, later on Friday.  If the injury is considered more serious than being out day-to-day, there will be an update on the blog, but if it is just bruising and nothing more, we'll let it be.

Stuart continues to hold the 20th spot in the standings through Thursday night's busy schedule, but isn't making up any ground on the rest of the top 20, barely hanging on to what he has at the moment.  This injury could see him fall under again, especially if it is long-term.

The Senators blueline appears to be still be a point of worry for the coaching staff, as bodies on the roster are being healthy scratches and they are pool defensemen as well.  Patrick Weircioch returned to the press box after playing before the Olympic Break, joining Joe Corvo up there as a semi-regular press box popcorn consumer.  I would have to think that if the Senators would be looking to shore up anything, it would be the blueline, possibly using one of the regular healthy scratches as a possible return in a deal.

Weircioch belongs to Doug in the pool this year and this week, Doug currently holds the basement position with only 4 points in the week.  Unfortunately, that has been the story of his season, something he hasn't been able to see any improvement in.

There was an expectation that Marcus Johansson would be back from Sochi/Sweden by now, but reports are suggesting that the playmaking pivot was having passport issues in his travels and things have been hung up, making him unavailable to play on Thursday night.  According to the line rushes at practice on Friday morning, Johansson is back with the team and I would imagine that he is expected to play on Saturday afternoon, when the Capitals visit the Bruins for a matinee game.

It only looks like it'll be one game away for Johansson in Wes' line-up.  I'm not sure how much more bad luck Wes could have, but I suppose it could be worse, as he could be mired in the basement this year.  Wes is safely planted in 15th place through Thursday night.

Injury news for the Capitals as well on Friday morning, as it appears that Mikhail Grabovski may have returned too early from his lower-body injury, which kept him out of a number of games before the Olympic Break.  Grabovski aggravated the ankle injury that kept him out and has now gone back to Washington to get checked out further by team doctors and the team has announced that he is officially out for Saturday afternoon's game in Boston, but that is as much as they'll say.on Friday.

Grabovski belongs to the pool's duo, Kristy & Don, who have also had all kinds of injury woes this season.  They have climbed up two positions to 17th place this week, but they will likely want to have one of their better forwards back before too long to help that climb back up into a respectable finishing position.