Player Notes in the Draft (Dec 12)

In Buffalo, Calgary Flames forward Matt Stajan had another night off, for what appeared to be a healthy scratch, as Joe Colborne did indeed return to the lineup.  Stajan just returned from injury himself earlier in the week, so the argument could have been made for some conditioning reasons, why he didn't play or may be felt a slight relapse, but I haven't seen anything yet on this, so an injury doesn't seem too likely.  The Flames play again on Friday night, in Pittsburgh, so it could have been saving Stajan from playing back-to-back nights as well.  I guess we'll see with the lineup tonight.

It's another skater game lost for Leo, who now sees his team as the front-runner for the Basement Dweller in Week Ten.  His team does have a few others still in sight, but that's not where you want to be right about now, as teams tried to sort themselves out for the last two-thirds of the year.

Scary scene in the Boston/Chicago game, as Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews was smashed face-first into the boards by Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg.  Toews did get up and leave under his own power, but the violent nature of the hit into the boards should be concerning for team officials.  The Blackhawks will likely have a battery of tests done on their captain before too much is said or done, so we'll have to hold tight there.

Toews was the 15th overall pick in the 1st round of the draft for Stacey M. this season and he has been one of her better players to start the season.  Toews has picked up 11 goals and 12 assists in the first 29 games this season, accounting for 10.1% of her team's points, so this could potentially be a big loss, if it is for anything long-term.

A lower-body injury has forced Josh Bailey from the Islanders' lineup again and it could have been the reason why Bailey missed some time in the past couple weeks as well.  Bailey has only made 18 appearances for the Islanders this season, picking up 4 goals and 4 assists in that time.  His injury is considered to be day-to-day, but it sounds like it is a nagging problem, which may hinder his scoring rate this season.

Scott didn't put too much stock into Bailey, taking him in the 13th round of the draft, but he had to have been looking for a bargain basement pick with some mid-round numbers.  Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case and Scott decided on dropping a couple other forwards instead.

If I was going to measure the success of Michael Del Zotto's move to Philadelphia, I would have included how much of an everyday player he had become for his new team.  By my count, as of Thursday night, Del Zotto has been a scratch four times, including the game against the Devils.  I suppose the next measure would be his offensive output, where 8 points in 24 games does suggest that his scratches are offense related.  Nevertheless, he was a scratch again and if his numbers don't start to improve, he may find himself upstairs again and again.

It hasn't been a good year for the champ, who seems unlikely to repeat, sitting in 20th spot, now 50 points out of the money and 101 points out of 1st place.  There is still about two-thirds of the season to go, but he may want to shoot for smaller goals first, like the top 10, where he's only 31 points back.

Finally, in Tampa Bay, forward Ondrej Palat missed out on Thursday night's game against the Hurricanes to a lower-body injury.  Palat was reportedly injured earlier in the week against the Capitals and was deemed unable to play last night.  The reports are suggesting that the injury isn't too severe and that he could be back in the lineup as soon as Saturday night, which is against the Capitals again.

Palat currently belongs to Wes, who finished the night in 10th place, 21 points back of the money.  The young Czech forward has been good for Wes this year, picking up 19 points in 29 games for the Bolts, but wasn't quite missed on Thursday, as his team pulled out a 2-1 victory in his absence.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.