John R. made his pick, the 2nd overall pick in the draft, by dropping Sergei Plotnikov of the Penguins and hopping into the PIM pool (or at the very least, trying to spoil it) by taking Tom Wilson of the Capitals. Before the addition of Wilson, John's team sits in 10th in the PIM pool standings, 130 minutes behind Wes, so it's a bit of a long shot to come back from that deficit. If anyone can do it, Wilson can.With the 3rd overall pick, Mike was pretty quick on the draw, adding to his rookie squad, taking the leading rookie, heading into the Waiver Draft, San Jose's Joonas Donskoi and dropping an add from the last draft, Brett Connolly of the Bruins. The rookie pool is a bit of a lost cause, but it's fun to cheer for those freshmen and with a good add, Mike's team has a slight chance to jump into the top five of the pool, as he sits tied for 6th, 12 points back of 5th.
On Sunday morning, after much humming, hawing and stinking...errr, I mean, thinking... Benson wanted to save face in the standings and to not finish last overall, despite the added feature of improving your draft position next year. He opted for goaltender Louis Domingue of the Arizona Coyotes, who may have earned himself the number one job, even if Mike Smith comes back from abdominal surgery. On the way out, New York Rangers back-up, Antti Raanta, who hasn't seen much action behind Henrik Lundqvist.
Now, we wait to see who Wes' big drop is going to be... I'm sure he'll want to pad his head in the PIM pool this week and if I had a guess, he'll be looking towards the blueline this week. His forwards lead the pool in time spent in the box, but his defense are still skating out on the ice, most of the time.
Well, before the end of the night on Wednesday, Grant decided to make his pick nice and early, as the decision for him was pretty easy. He decided on dropping Mikhail Grigorenko of the Avalanche, his failed pick from Week Nine, and took Mikael Backlund of the Flames, a player dropped by Mike in Week Nine, also in a negative situation. Two negatives make a positive, right? Backlund was the highest scoring forward available after Week Seventeen concluded, having 22 points in 48 games so far this year.
As it was highlighted in the rosters of the All-Star teams, Jonathan Toews was "forced" to miss the festivities in Nashville due to an "illness" and that decision will cost him the first game back from the break, just to make sure that he misses some quality time for what ails him now. This is nothing new, as the league has forced other star players to sit out a game for their absence from their marquee weekend in the global marketplace.
Alex Ovechkin will have the same treatment done to him as well, as a "lower-body injury" is the apparent cause for his absence and it will also cost him the first game back from the break. Ovechkin played and finished the last game for the Capitals before the break, so there is an indication to the NHL that something isn't quite right.
The notion of the suspension for Dennis Wideman dropped on Thursday, as the NHL said that the Flames' veteran defenseman was suspended indefinitely for his part in a collision with a linesman in the team's final game before the All-Star break on Wednesday night against the Predators.
This incident has turned into quite the contentious subject, especially in Calgary, and it has made for an interesting conversation. Those that are aware of the way that Wideman plays the game would know that he isn't known to be a very outlandishly violent player and I don't think that is really up for debate.
The rosters for the All-Star Game 3-on-3 tournament were announced some time ago, but I thought it was better to have the pool listings done during the break, just looks a little more apt that way. Oh, and of course, there are going to be roster changes, as there were a couple of players pulling out on Thursday to "injury" or "illness," which should cost each player a game after the weekend for missing out on the game.
Remarkably, this race for the Player of the Week was actually quite good, considering there were only 19 games in three days on the NHL schedule. The pool ended up with three players with 5 points, so we had to really break it down to the tie-breakers and since they were all forwards, it was a good tie-breaker. So, as you can already tell, it was Cam Atkinson of the Columbus Blue Jackets who came away with the honour, beating out fellow teammate Brandon Dubinsky and Rangers forward Derick Brassard.
Only 10 teams in the pool were able to hit double-digits in the points column this week, thanks to a very limited schedule, thanks to the All-Star break, which gets started today. On top of them all is our pool leaders, who didn't really do much for moving exactly, rather they were able to shake out a 15-point week, despite a glaring scoring change from last week, which wasn't applied until early this week.
Brenda & Seward, now sit 10 points clear on top of the standings, thanks to a big week in three days, which cemented their spot as the last pick in each round of the Waiver Draft.
A limited amount of games on the schedule was bound to hurt a few teams and it sure did. Four teams didn't pass the 5 points mark in the week, which did more to help these teams and their Waiver Draft position, but no one really wants their team to fall off the map that badly. Stacey C., making it four straight weeks with a Stacey in the Basement Dweller, finished with 2 points in three days worth of action.
In the money race, the only notable piece of news from this short week was Brenda & Seward expanding their lead to 10 points in the standings, as both Jeremy and John P. each finished with 7 points and their teams were rather pedestrian.
We have a winner! With a Connor Hellebuyck win for the Jets on Tuesday and Braden Holtby dropping his decision to Philadelphia on Wednesday, Allan comes away with top prize in the goalie survivor pool... a $25 gift certificate to Chuck E. Cheese's for all the fun in the ball pits as you can handle! Bazinga!
The rookie pool was probably over before it started, but since it won't be officially over until the end of the schedule, we'll continue to report on how many points Ryan is ahead at this point in the season. 
The first Waiver Draft didn't really help the causes of all the teams chasing Wes in the PIM pool in the second segment, as only one team fared better than our leader in this mini-game and it was only 7 minutes better, not even trying to be that much better in that Waiver Draft either.
As of Thursday morning, it appears that Joe Colborne was out of the Calgary lineup with an undisclosed injury, which makes some sense, since his scoring was starting to pick up in recent games, removing the thought that he was actually a healthy scratch against the Predators. He's on the list as out day-to-day for right now, no real updates will likely be provided until after the break, unless the slow news days really catch up to the Flames over the weekend.
A regular healthy scratch this season, Lightning defenseman Matt Carle, was back in the press box in the last game before the break, as Tampa Bay was hosting the Maple Leafs, coming away with a 1-0 win. There is very little redeeming qualities to Carle's season and it is likely that he'll find his way back to the press box more times in the third segment of the season.
Standing in his way tonight is Braden Holtby of the Capitals, who is Jeremy's only start this week and he gets the Philadelphia Flyers, at home, and with Michal Neuvirth (Neil) in the other net tonight. The Capitals won the first meeting between these two sides, 5-2 in Philly in November, Holtby making 18 saves for the win. A must-win for Jeremy tonight!
Four games on the docket tonight and you never know, there could be some animosity in some of them.
The Philadelphia Flyers announced that goaltender Steve Mason will not be in the lineup, due to a lower-body injury, as the Flyers are in Washington to take on the Capitals for their last game before the break. Michal Neuvirth has been getting the brunt of the work of late, so this injury may be something that has lingered and there was no point in dressing Mason, giving him some extra rest, ahead of the All-Star break.
The bottom six for the Colorado Avalanche continues to shuffle around and a lot of the familiar faces in the press box are still making their returns, including forward Mikhail Grigorenko. His season has only generated 3 goals and 13 points in 43 games and has also made about eight trips upstairs this year, which is disappointing, considering the trade that the Avalanche acquired him in.
Scary moment for the Montreal Canadiens, as forward Max Pacioretty was struck in the face by a P.K. Subban slap shot in the game against the Blue Jackets on Tuesday, forcing him to leave the game and not return. There hasn't been much for updates online yet on his condition, but since he's not an All-Star and the team is already off on their break, I think it could be hush-hush until early next week. If something significant drops before then, we will be sure to have it on the blog.
The Colorado Avalanche have recalled goaltender Roman Will from the AHL and he is scheduled to back-up Calvin Pickard in the team's last game before the All-Star break, as Semyon Varlamov didn't travel with the club to Los Angeles, staying behind for a court date instead. Varlamov is having some troubles with an old girlfriend in court and needs to be present for this civil suit case, but he should be ready to go, when the schedule resumes next week.
True to form, the New York Rangers decided on scratching veteran defenseman Dan Boyle on the second half of back-to-back nights, keeping his aged legs from getting too tired during the season. In his time spent in the lineup, he has only just been okay for the team offensively, picking up 5 goals and 14 points in 42 games, ranking 329th overall in pool scoring.
It does look like it'll be a good night to try and catch Wes, as he doesn't have any of his big goons going tonight, so teams involved in this pool have a good shot, if they so choose to chuck some knuckles.
On Saturday, Winnipeg forward Mathieu Perreault left the game against the Devils with a lower-body injury and it appears that he will miss Tuesday's game, the Jets' last game before the break, with the injury and the coaching staff is hopeful that he'll be ready to go for Week Eighteen. The All-Star break does help those ailing players and this week is a little bit of a wash, when you look at the big picture.