Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Feb 16)



Later on in the day, after regaling him as a hero in the pool, the Buffalo Sabres enforced a team suspension on forward Evander Kane on Monday for missing practice, after he attended the NBA All-Star festivities in Toronto on the weekend.  Kane's punishment is being handled internally and it is only thought to be a 1-game punishment.

Kane was a huge part of Derek & Dan's big week, both in points and PIM, so his presence will be missed at the start of this week, as on might assume he was just starting to heat up in both races.

A nagging lower-body injury was to blame for the absence of Kris Russell out of the Calgary Flames lineup last night, when they played host to the Anaheim Ducks on Monday afternoon.  The injury is thought to have been around for a few weeks and it was just getting to be too much for him, something he couldn't quite play through.  He's day-to-day right now, pending any further developments.

Troy's team has dropped out of the top 10 in recent weeks and is slowly losing grip on the hopes that his team can recover enough for a 3rd place finish.  After Monday's action, his team is now 42 points behind the money and would need a great week right away to replenish hope.

The Florida Panthers are expecting to be without forward Brandon Pirri for the next few weeks, but as of Tuesday morning, he had yet to be placed on the Injured Reserve.  It sounds like Pirri is dealing with an ankle injury of some kind, but details have been sketchy, to say the least.  I would assume he'll hit the IR some time this week, which would lop off his projected games until he's healthy.

Derek W. has been making strides, trying to catch Troy, who is just ahead of him, but this injury could also slow things down.  Pirri is a bigger loss for points than Russell, as the Florida winger has 24 points in 52 games already this season.

Click here for the updated injury/news page on the website

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