Three players of note came back to their respective line-ups on Friday night, the only real news of the evening. Goaltender Semyon Varlamov came back from his groin injury, picking up a win for the Avalanche against the Canucks in his return. Defenseman Eric Gelinas returned from a 1-game absence in the press box for the Devils, no points in his return. Also for the Lightning, Radko Gudas came back to the blueline, he missed four games with a lower-body injury.
Benson, Wilton and Brenda all had players return, respectively, but the Basement Dweller was the only one to pick up points upon their returns. The other two should just be happy that they have bodies back in the line-up.
On Saturday, the New York Islanders did a little bit of transaction housekeeping, as Mikhail Grabovski was activated off of the Injured Reserve, as he has sufficiently recovered from his concussion symptoms, while the hand injury that Josh Bailey suffered in the week has been determined to be a broken hand, so he will be out of the line-up indefinitely and was placed on the IR on Saturday.
This is a good run of news for Allan, who has a player coming off the injured list, but Scott can't be too happy, as he has now lost a player for a few weeks, at the least. Allan sits in 8th spot, heading into Saturday, 8 points out of 3rd place and 10 points out of 2nd, while Scott is 10 points behind Allan, back in 14th spot. This is the run of luck that Scott would have preferred, for sure.
Let's see if we can find some of some early news and notes for the goaltending on Saturday, shall we... there are 11 games on tap, so there should be plenty of goalie points to go around.
One afternoon tilt will see the Sabres visit the Sharks. San Jose will play back-to-back, Saturday and Sunday, which means back-up Alex Stalock gets the call for the afternoon game today, Antti Niemi likely tomorrow. Michal Neuvirth has been tapped as the Sabres goalie this afternoon, in response. Stalock belongs to Scott this season, who starts the day 18 points out of the money and could use a win, while Wyllie will get a start out of his goalie today. Wyllie sits 13th and Scott is in 14th at the start of the day, both looking to move up.
Jonathan Bernier is going to get the start against the Bruins for the Leafs tonight, while Tuukka Rask is expected (not confirmed) to go against Toronto. Bernier belongs to Troy this season, while Rask is in Dale B.'s corner, and this match-up sees Dale with a 9-point lead over Troy in the standings.
At the Bell Centre, it's a marquee match-up between Henrik Lundqvist and Carey Price, as the Rangers and Habs go head-to-head. This match-up sees Brenda's main man versus Wes' tonight, one team needs the result a lot more than the other.
The Devils will face Robin Lehner, as he goes for the Sens, but there is a chance that the Devils may start Scott Clemmensen. If this match-up does go, that means there are no pool stock in the crease in this one, both Cam and Grant K. would be without goalie minutes. Grant could use the start too, sitting 7 points back of Cam.
The Islanders will have Chad Johnson in net, going up against the high-powered Stars, who will start Anders Lindback in return. The battle of the back-ups will feature a couple of bottom half teams, as Mike has Johnson and Brian is looking for his first goalie points of the season with Lindback tonight.
Johan Gustavsson is expected to play for the Red Wings on Saturday, as they take on the Flyers. Ray Emery has been tabbed as the goalie for the Flyers in response. Tony will see Gustavsson get a start for him tonight, while Emery, who has been the better Flyers goalie so far, gets another start for Dale C.. Tony is only 5 points back of Dale, so this is a good match-up for the standings.
The Blackhawks will likely have Antti Raanta back in net in St. Louis, taking on Brian Elliott and the Blues. No one took Raanta, but he plays since Corey Crawford is on the shelf, but Elliott belongs to Clayton, who is mired near the bottom of the standings to start the year.
Pittsburgh is in Nashville, another 6pm MT start, and the goaltending match-up has not been finalized at the time of the post, but it is expected to be a number one battle between Marc-Andre Fleury and Pekka Rinne. Fleury belongs to Clayton, down in 18th spot, 37 points behind Kristy & Don, who have Rinne.
Darcy Kuemper will put his 3 shutout wins up against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Minnesota tonight, as he'll take on Evgeni Nabokov, as Ben Bishop got the start (and the win) the night before. Kuemper belongs to Stacey M., while Nabokov is Grant K.'s second keeper. In this match-up, Grant holds a 9-point advantage over Stacey.
Roberto Luongo heads to the desert to take on the Coyotes, while the Panthers will likely face Mike Smith in the Arizona net, making for a pretty good match-up tonight. Luongo belongs to Stuart and Smith belongs to Wes, who gets two goalie starts tonight. Wes sits in the money with 70 points, while Stuart is way back down with 47 points to start the night.
Finally, the host Flames will have Kari Ramo in net tonight, likely taking on Braden Holtby and the Capitals. Ramo belongs to Leo, who has both Calgary goalies, while Holtby belongs to Stacey C.. Leo is in the money mix early on, while Stacey sits 16 points back of his match-up here, needing a win.
An updated list of injuries can be found here.
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