Afternoon Player Notes in the Draft (Feb 11)

Just before back-to-back games this weekend, the Buffalo Sabres' blueline took a pretty good hit, as they have announced that Cody Franson will be sidelined for upwards of three weeks with a bad bone bruise in his foot, suffered Thursday night against Anaheim.  You can chalk this one up to another shot-blocking injury, which has done quite a bit of damage this season as well.

Franson hasn't exactly been his productive self in Buffalo, having only 3 goals and 16 points in Buffalo this year, but that could be more about the team around him than anything.  Nevertheless, Dale C. has not been impressed.

Pittsburgh Penguins forward Bryan Rust has been sidelined with an upper-body injury on Thursday night in Colorado and he has already been ruled out of Saturday's contest in Arizona.  The Penguins will have a few days off, before they hit the ice again, Tuesday night at home against the Canucks, so the injury may have some extra time to heal.

Rust is Dale C.'s only real shot at any money this season and it is a real long shot.  The injury likely won't affect Rust's participation in the last outdoor game of the season, but his absence won't help Dale's team try and overtake Kristy & Don this weekend.

It wasn't until the rosters were in did we see that Logan Couture was a scratch for the San Jose Sharks this afternoon against the Flyers in Philly on Saturday.  The team has not disclosed what the injury is or how bad it is, but he wasn't able to go.  All we know is that he's listed as day-to-day and that could mean just about anything, even the monster illness that has been wreaking in the league this season.

The absence of Couture today didn't help Brenda & Seward, as they defend 3rd place again this week.  At the time of this post, they were holding on to a 6-point lead, with action underway on Saturday afternoon.