Now that tonight's games are over, let us look forward to tomorrow's outdoor clash, as the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins go head-to-head at Foxboro Stadium, home of the New England Patriots.
This one really has the makings of a great game, in terms of the match-up, the importance of the game and just how many pool players are involved this year. Of course, having 27 pool teams this season certainly helps the cause, doesn't it?
The Canadiens are struggling through some major injuries, especially to their number one goalie, which has seen them fall from a big lead they had in the Atlantic Division and now see themselves right in the thick of the race for the division lead, sitting just behind the Florida Panthers. The Bruins, they are right behind those two and could find themselves in the lead, with any kind win over the Canadiens.
Let's have a look at the players chosen in the pool, shall we?
| Montreal | Boston | |||
| Mike Condon | John R. | Tuukka Rask | Dale C. | |
| Carey Price | John S. | Jonas Gustavsson | Stacey C. | |
| --- | --- | |||
| Max Pacioretty | Dale C. | Patrice Bergeron | Neil | |
| Tomas Plekanec | Jeremy | David Krejci | Dale B. | |
| Alex Galchenyuk | Dale C. | Loui Eriksson | Cindy | |
| Dale Weise | Stacey M. | Brad Marchand | Brian | |
| Brendan Gallagher | Derek & Dan | Ryan Spooner | John S. | |
| David Desharnais | Benson | Matt Beleskey | Brenda & Seward | |
| Tomas Fleischmann | Kristy & Don | Jimmy Hayes | Jeremy | |
| Lars Eller | Stacey M. | Brett Connolly | Mike | |
| Torrey Mitchell | Derek W. | |||
| --- | --- | |||
| P.K. Subban | Dale B. | Zdeno Chara | Brenda & Seward | |
| Andrei Markov | Neil | Torey Krug | Tony | |
| Jeff Petry | Stacey M. | Colin Miller | Eric | |
| Nathan Beaulieu | Cindy | Dennis Seidenberg | John S. |
Players in red are injured, players in orange are suspended, players in blue are in the minors.
Dale C. and Stacey M lead the number of active players listed in this game, both teams having three players to hit the ice tomorrow. Dale's team includes the projected starting goalie for the Bruins, Tuukka Rask. It's unfortunate that the other two of his players are on the other bench, but that's the way it goes. No one drafts for the Winter Classic.
What we do know for sure is that Brad Marchand won't be in uniform for this game, as his 3-game suspension kicks in tomorrow and what a poor time for that to happen. This will strike one of Brian's players from the lineup, which maybe has more play in the PIM pool than the overall standings. Also having some play in the PIM pool, was the announcement that Brendan Gallagher will be dressed for the Habs, returning from his broken hand. Great news for Derek & Dan.
The money teams, heading into this game, have some presence or maybe it would be better to say, that only some of the money teams have a presence.Brenda & Seward have a couple of key Bruins in the mix, which will keep it interesting for them. Matt Beleskey hasn't quite been the force he was acquired to be, but Zdeno Chara keeps pounding away.
Jeremy has a player on either side, Tomas Plekanec of the Habs or Jimmy Hayes of the Bruins, both have some offensive upside in this game.
John P. is noticeably absent, likely because of his love for the Maple Leafs.
Neil, who has climbed up, back into the conversation, also has a couple players going on Friday afternoon, one on each side, Andrei Markov for the Habs and Patrice Bergeron for the Bruins. Can he make the jump back in before the end of the week?
John P. was skunked again on Wednesday night and on a busy New Year's Eve, the only team that would possibly offer up a start for him is going with their other goalie.
In all likelihood, Wes will be finishing the calendar year with the most PIM in the mini-game and it looks like his team will have some chances to pad their lead, which goes into New Year's Eve with only 28 minutes between his team and Dale B.'s.
Ahead of the Winter Classic on Friday, the Boston Bruins looked to add some flexibility to their roster, by sending defenseman Colin Miller down to the AHL for the game and they decided to call up a forward, Alex Khokhlachev, to give some depth up front. There's no indication about how long this demotion will last for Miller, but it's got to be a disappointment.
It has been confirmed, the Montreal Canadiens will have Brendan Gallagher for the Winter Classic, as he has been given 100% clearance on Thursday, so he will dress after missing 17 games with a broken hand. This will be a huge boost to the Habs, who have been reeling with injuries in the last month or so.
Right around when the NHL schedule kicked into gear on Wednesday night, it was announced that the Dallas Stars had placed oft-injured forward Ales Hemsky on the Injured Reserve, due to a lower-body injury suffered on Tuesday night against Columbus. Hemsky blocked a Fedor Tyutin slap shot around his foot and was forced from the game prematurely.
What was initially thought as an injury, it was actually a healthy scratch for Buffalo Sabres forward Matt Moulson, missing out on Wednesday's loss to the Capitals for performance reasons. Ironic, no? Moulson hasn't registered a point since December 10th in Calgary and his ice-time had diminished over the last few games, leading up to the trip to the press box. In total, Moulson has 4 goals and 12 points in 36 games, with only 6 PIM to his credit as well.
It was a surprise start for Jonathan Bernier on Wednesday night for the Toronto Maple Leafs, as they were expecting to go with James Reimer instead. Well, Reimer, who came in relief of Bernier in the last game, experienced some lower-body tightness after the game and it continued through to Wednesday night and he was unable to go. This left the team scrambling, putting Garret Sparks on the IR with his lower-body injury and making an emergency recall of Antoine Bibeau to sit on the bench. On the plus side for the Leafs, they managed a shootout win over the Penguins and all was well in the world.
The Philadelphia Flyers won't be the only team with a huge return to the lineup tonight, as their opponents, the San Jose Sharks, will also get a boost tonight, with the return of Logan Couture. Couture has been out since December 8th, as he was dealing with a traumatic bleed in his leg, another bump in the road in an injury-plagued season. Couture has only played in five games this season, picking up a couple of assists.
What a great night for PIM it was on Tuesday, as the pool took in all kinds of big minutes from some altercations and hulla-baloo's through the schedule. Through 16 NHL games this week, the pool is averaging 12.9 minutes in penalties, a minor penalty more per game better than our best week, so far this season.
With the Blue Jackets now 11 points back of a Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference, dead last in the conference, I may add, they will get their number one goalie back in the lineup on Saturday, as they have activated Sergei Bobrovsky from the Injured Reserve on Wednesday, sending Joonas Korpisalo back to the AHL at the same time. Bobrovsky has been out since the second week of December with a groin injury and his expected recovery time was three weeks, so he's pretty much on time.
Another big return is on the horizon, as the Philadelphia Flyers have activated defenseman Mark Streit from the IR on Wednesday morning/afternoon. Streit has been out since the middle of November with a pubic plate detachment and it was thought to keep the defender out for upwards of six weeks and that's pretty much what we've seen, give or take a week. In order to do that, the Flyers went ahead and buried Sam Gagner in the minors, who cleared waivers today to make the moves possible.
On Tuesday night, the Dallas Stars lost the services of forward Ales Hemsky, who left the game against the Blue Jackets with a lower-body injury. There hasn't been a lot made of his injury status, thus far, but we should see something fairly soon. The oft-injured forward hasn't missed much time yet this year, only being scratched for one game this season. He'll be day-to-day with a lower-body injury, unless otherwise noted.
Details are yet to emerge on why Zach Parise wasn't at Wild practice on Wednesday morning, but the early speculation is not very positive. What we do know thus far is that Parise has already been ruled out of Thursday's game in St. Louis and any decision after that will be made when it is known whether or not he can practice on Friday. There are some fears about whether or not this injury long-term, so we'll wait and see.
The Tampa Bay Lightning have announced that forward Jonathan Drouin has been activated off of the Injured Reserve and is now available to play, if given the green light by the coaching staff. It did appear that he was activated for Monday night's game against the Canadiens, as he was on the scratch list, but it wasn't really announced. Drouin has been out with a lower-body injury, which has been nagging him for a while this season. If he doesn't dress, he will then be considered a healthy scratch.
Obviously unhappy with his play of late, the Rangers coaching staff confirmed that forward Kevin Hayes will be a healthy scratch on Wednesday night, when they play the Lightning. Hayes has not been very productive, having only 1 assist, a -3 rating and 4 PIM in his last five games. This is done to give the young pivot a good kick in the pants, see if he can get his game back on track.
Leading up to Monday night's game against the Buffalo Sabres, Washington Capitals defenseman John Carlson was being touted as a game-time decision with a lower-body injury. At puck drop, he was indeed a scratch for the Capitals, ending a 412-game ironman streak. Carlson was reportedly hurt on Saturday against Montreal and there was some thought that he would be able to play through whatever had ailed him, but that just wasn't the case. He is on the list as out day-to-day for right now.
The Nashville Predators will have some help back in their lineup, as they have activated forward Mike Fisher from the Injured Reserve, as he is ready to come back from a lower-body injury, which has kept him out since the end of November, almost missing a whole month with the ailment. Fisher only has 7 points in 24 games before his injury, so he'll need to improve those numbers, upon his return.
It appears to be Jacob Markstrom's net in Vancouver for the next little while, as Ryan Miller has been placed on the IR with a lower-body injury and the coaching staff believe he is still a week away from coming back. At best guess, it is a groin injury, more than it is cramping and it will just need a little bit more rest to recover. Miller will be eligible to come off at just about any time, but another week is what they believe he'll need.
We saw an update on Boston Bruins forward David Krejci as we were finishing up the Newsletter this morning, as the Bruins now have him listed as out week-to-week with his upper-body injury, which will be a very big blow to their roster going forward.
A limited amount of games in the week, thanks to that damned commercial holiday nonsense, had really limited the amount of points we were going to see in this week's Newsletter and from our Player of the Week. The returns came in and 6 points was good enough to put our poster boy up top and after a quick tie-breaking process, Patrick Sharp of the Dallas Stars was our Player of the Week for Week Twelve.
This was a close race, until the final buzzer sounded on Sunday night. It was down to Brenda & Seward and Stacey M. and it was going to be a hard one. Same amount of goals scored in the week, same amount of wins in the week... up until that final horn sounded. Karri Ramo came to the rescue of Brenda & Seward, giving them that extra 2 points, that extra win and a huge Mover & Shaker week, helping them to drive the standings and move right up into a very cozy position.
I don't think there is any escaping the irony in this section of the Newsletter this week, as Ramo, a Flames goalie, beat the Oilers, Brenda's favourite team, in order for the duo to earn the Mover & Shaker nod. What was she doing picking a Flames goalie anyways, right?
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Benson may have had a few players playing this week, no doubt, but they were not sucking up much for points, rather they were just sucking air. Sure, I could have made that much worse, but I elected to be nice.
John P. narrowly extends his Newsletter streak in 1st place to five weeks, as his side managed enough points to be credited as the 1st place team, but Brenda & Seward jumped up from 5th to a tie with John, now sitting in 2nd place. Jeremy's team couldn't quite keep the pace, dropping down to 3rd, now 7 points back of top spot, a small gap to make up, in the next week or two.
Yawn! Ryan extended his lead in the pool to 30 points, thanks to some help from Robby Fabbri of the Blues and Artemi Panarin of the Blackhawks.
Another week, another elimination!
The PIM pool is getting very interesting and it's a surprise team that is really making all the noise.
Sunday night, the Anaheim Ducks lost the services of defenseman Cam Fowler, in-game against the Flyers, as he left the game with a lower-body injury, not long after registering an assist on the team's first goal of the night. There wasn't much for details after the game, so we'll be watching this one over the next day or two. If nothing else gets posted on the blog, it's fair to think that it will just be day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
A trio of Bruins will hit the blog this morning, as defenseman Colin Miller was a healthy scratch for the game against the Senators, while defenseman Torey Krug was a late scratch with an undisclosed injury and then in the game, forward David Krejci left the game with a lower-body injury, not to return. That's a lot of talent coming out of the lineup, which doesn't exactly make it a surprise that Boston lost to Ottawa, 3-1. We'll have some more info on Krejci, later on in the day.
Haven't seen much after Jeff Carter suffered an upper-body injury on Saturday night, so he will be listed as out day-to-day for the time being. Carter left the game against the Coyotes in the 2nd period, not to return, with the injury. 
After playing one game from an injury return, the Pittsburgh Penguins didn't want to put defenseman Kris Letang in a tough position in back-to-back nights, opting to scratch him for precautionary reasons. The injury prone defender likely doesn't want to miss more time this season, due to injury.