Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Oct 13)

The Calgary Flames opened the season in Edmonton last night and possibly could have used a little more defense, in a 7-4 loss, while blueliner Jyrki Jokipakka was up in the press box as a healthy scratch.  The Flames, who opted to start the season with eight defensemen on their active roster, opted to only dress six in the loss, but that's pretty hard to pin on not having one depth defender in their lineup.  The two teams will meet again on Friday night and one would have to assume that there will be changes to the lineup ahead of that game.

I don't think Scott was allowed to have all the luck on night number one, as he used up a whole lot of it in the Maple Leafs/Senators game, which started the night.  One game is nothing to be too concerned about, although being passed over for Nicklas Grossmann could be a concern.

Los Angeles Kings number one goalie, Jonathan Quick, only played in one period in their game against the San Jose Sharks, before giving way to Jeff Zatkoff.  The word from the team after the game was that it is a lower-body injury and that the timeline for his recovery "could be a while."  Quick is set to have an MRI, likely today, to determine the severity of the injury and an announcement would hopefully soon follow.

Kristy & Don are not off to a lucky start to the season, with the injury to Jack Eichel in Buffalo, their 3rd round pick, and now Quick, their 1st round pick, they could be finding themselves behind the 8-ball for the big money here right away, while they ponder a mini-game to play.

It turns out that the demotion to the minors was indeed just a paperwork deal, as the Blue Jackets were going to try and capitalize on the loopholes of the CBA, in terms of the Long Term Injured Reserve, having forward Pierre-Luc Dubois on the roster, with his larger cap hit, rather than Alexander Wennberg, who was sent down to the minors on roster deadline day.  On Wednesday, the paperwork was cleared up, Dubois was sent back to junior for seasoning and Wennberg was recalled, ahead of Columbus' opener, home to Boston tonight.

Crisis averted!  Stacey C. doesn't have to blame his proxy manager to this demotion, as the Blue Jackets had it all in hand.  Phew!  Stacey's team got off to a good start on Wednesday, picking up 5 points on opening night and is in line for more tonight.