Player Notes in the Draft (Feb 6)

The once hot-at-home Anaheim Ducks are now facing a bit of a small crisis, as they haven't been able to string many wins together since losing at home in regulation for the first time against Winnipeg, not long ago. Now, what were cyclical scratches to keep the line-up fresh, now seem like moves to help get the team going again. On Wednesday against the Blackhawks, it was a return to the press box for Jakob Silfverberg, who had seen a few games upstairs already this season.

The healthy scratch hasn't deterred Stacey M.'s team from having a good week, through Wednesday night, as they share the weekly lead in scoring with 14 points.  There is no telling whether or not Silfverberg would have made a difference, as the Ducks were shutout by the Blackhawks last night, but it wouldn't have hurt to have him play.

The Boston Bruins hockey staff and players have given their approval for their captain to represent his country at the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics in Sochi. Defenseman Zdeno Chara, who will suit up for Slovakia at the Men's Hockey tournament, will be his country's flag bearer at the Opening Ceremonies, which will mean he will miss the team's next two games, tonight in St. Louis and Saturday, home to Ottawa.

This means that Tony will be without one Olympian for the remainder of the week, possibly more, which will hurt his chances of continuing a pretty good week, to this point.  Through Wednesday night, his team has already hit double digits, picking up 10 points.

The Chicago Blackhawks have let their leading scorer, Patrick Kane, take the last couple days before the Olympic Break off, due to his grandfather's passing and funeral, which is scheduled to be on Friday.  Kane will not play in the team's final game before the break, Friday night in Phoenix, but will be still heading with Team USA to Sochi on Saturday.

John will miss a game from his best player this season, which may actually cost him a point or two, since Kane is scoring at better than a point-per-game clip this season.

The Vancouver Canucks still have two games remaining on the schedule before the Olympic Break and they have announced that they will be playing them without their captain, Henrik Sedin, who hasn't sufficiently recovered from his rib injury, which cost him his ironman streak, a couple weeks ago.  Sedin missed six games the first time around, but appeared to have returned too soon, as the Canucks were struggling to find wins, but he was struggling to be effective on the ice.  There is no word as to whether or not this injury will force him to miss the Olympic tournament in Russia.

More bad news for Tony, as this injury will cost him another two man games in Week Nineteen.  Tony's team currently sits in 19th, 11 points out of 15th, 39 points out of the top half of the standings.