Player Notes in the Draft (Feb 25)

A couple of undisclosed injuries marred an otherwise good night for the Buffalo Sabres, as they beat the Blue Jackets, 4-2, but lost the services of forwards Zemgus Girgensons and Tyler Ennis.  The only reports that I have seen this morning were those of last night, how both players were not expected to return and then a bit later, how one could be a bit longer than the other, Ennis likely being out a few days.  It's very vague in details, but we'll see what we can work with in the next day or two.

Girgensons belongs to Scott, who currently sits in the driver's seat for the Mover & Shaker after a couple nights this week, but is still 29 points out of the money.  Ennis, on the other hand, belongs to Brenda & Seward, who have fallen off the pace, back down to 15th place, 9 points out of the top 10.

Flames forward Mason Raymond flew back to Calgary from New York, as his wife was about to give birth on Tuesday, which forced him to miss the team's 1-0 loss to the Rangers.  The team is already without forward Matt Stajan for the same reason, but Stajan was placed on the special non-roster designation, as his time away from the team is expected to be a bit longer.

This is a double blow to Leo, who has been rocking the Flames and former Flames roster this season in the draft.  I think he can fairly say, 'at least I'm not in last.'  And that's despite some really odd picks this year.

The hockey world is collectively holding its breath, awaiting the word on Patrick Kane's upper-body injury and the timetable that the Blackhawks expect him to be out of action. Kane took a low cross check from Panthers defenseman Alex Petrovic and it caused him to lose his balance and fall awkwardly into the boards. Kane came up favouring his shoulder, but the team was not in any position to offer any concrete details. The sense is, Kane will be out for a while, but how long exactly, will likely determine what the Blackhawks do leading up to the deadline.

Stacey C. still sees his name in the third segment standings on the main page, ranking 5th for the last segment's worth of scoring, and his team is still streaking in the 3 goals per week, just short of moving on to the next week and I think that's all his team has left to play for, down in 14th spot.  His team is only 10 points out of the top 10, but the loss of Kane would hurt those hopes dearly.


By my count, Zach Redmond registered his 23rd scratch of the regular season on Tuesday night, this after a long stretch of active play with the Colorado Avalanche in the last few weeks.  Redmond has played in 38 games, scoring 4 goals and 13 points this season, which ranks him 436th overall in pool scoring this season.

So, needless to say, it was a seemingly strange situation when Grant S. decided to pick him up in the Week Eighteen Waiver Draft, given his games played.  However, in six games played, Redmond has picked up 2 points for him, so it isn't all bad.

With Devan Dubnyk getting the starts in the Minnesota net, the Wild have been swapping who his back-up has been through a number of games, giving Niklas Backstrom some time on the bench and pool keeper Darcy Kuemper some time on the bench.  Last night, it was Backstrom's turn and Kuemper was the healthy scratch.  The Wild may run with three goalies all the way down the stretch, as they won't want to lose any of them through waivers, which all three would require for a trip down to the minors.  It seems unlikely that one of these keepers would be traded, since injuries have been in abundance in the Minnesota crease, so we may see a lot of this going forward.

Kuemper belongs to Stacey M. this season and without regular starts, her team's chances of improving on its 11th place standing seems somewhat unlikely or at the very least, it won't climb very much higher, if it does at all.

The New York Rangers were without another one of their biggest stars on Tuesday night with the Flames in town, as Rick Nash took a seat, dealing with some neck spasms.  Of course, the team is being rather guarded on the injury, not giving much for details, but they are saying that he is day-to-day and the 2nd-best goal scorer this season shouldn't be out for too long.  The Rangers host the Coyotes on Thursday and we'll likely know more, closer to game time.

Grant K. somehow managed to snag two of the top three goal scorers this season, but his team couldn't rally around them to give him a huge season.  Unfortunately, Grant sits in 18th place and his only real watching point is the 3 goals per week streak that he is on as well.  Otherwise, it's back to the drawing board for next year.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are going to ride Ben Bishop for the better part of the remainder of the season and rightfully so, as they are 2nd in the Atlantic Division and looking to stay there, in hopes of a good playoff spot.  With that being said, they want to make sure back-up goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy stays hot, so they have assigned him down to the AHL for some game action and by all accounts out there, he shouldn't be down too long, especially since the team isn't really deep in net beyond him.

It may look bad on the surface for Ryan, who is off to a poor start to Week Twenty-One and dropping back into the Olli bobblehead conversation.  It doesn't sound like he'll get much action out of his number one goalie, by virtue of injury, so it could be a rough finish for him.  I think he's stopped watching the standings anyways.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.