Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Nov 23)

The Boston Bruins took a sizable hit to their roster on Tuesday night, as they lost the services of their captain, Zdeno Chara, to a lower-body injury in the 1st period against the Blues and the initial prognosis isn't great.  Chara is not expected to travel with the team today, as they head to Ottawa for a game on Thursday night.  The Bruins are back home on Friday night, when they'll take on the Flames, but there is still no word on whether or not he'll be okay to go for that one.  He'll be day-to-day until otherwise noted.

Marcin's 3rd place team hasn't exactly been pulling too many points from Chara, so far this season, only 6 points in 19 games.  His production, as little as its been, will still probably be missed, but likely won't affect his standing immediately.

It was another full night off for Islanders goalie Jaroslav Halak on Tuesday night.  The Islanders are still running a 3-goalie system on their roster, but Halak has been getting the bulk of the work already this season.  When it comes to nights off though, Halak doesn't even have to dress as the backup, as J-F Berube gets that role, while Thomas Greiss gets the call to the crease.

This isn't anything to worry about for Troy, as this was a scheduled night off, but since he didn't get a win last night, his team is still in need of a win to qualify for Week Eight of the survivor pool.  Hopefully, this rest for Halak will help in that cause.

The Philadelphia Flyers are holding their breath, fearing the worst for forward Sean Couturier, who left Tuesday night's game against the Panthers with a knee injury and now they are waiting to hear just how bad the injury is.  The young pivot has been okay for the Flyers this season, scoring 5 goals and 8 points in 20 games, which has him ranked 217th in pool scoring today, which could leave a big hole in the Flyers' lineup.

If the injury is significant and/or needs surgery, Dale B.'s decision at the Waiver Draft may have gotten much easier.  Dale's team is in 8th place, as of Wednesday morning, 19 points out of the money and he can ill afford to miss out on time from any of his forwards right now.

In one last note from the night, it sounds like Anaheim defenseman Sami Vatanen was under the weather and he had to leave the game against the Islanders prematurely.  The Ducks don't play again until Friday night, so there should be a good chance that he'll be back to his old self again.

This season, Vatanen has 8 points in 20 games for Mike's pool team, which finished the night in 5th place, now only 10 points out of the money.  This really isn't anything to be too concerned about, on the surface anyways.