Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Mar 29)

Fresh off of a return from a rib injury, Kyle Okposo had to sit out another game, due to a being under the weather.  He's currently day-to-day with the illness, which is a tough break on an already tough season for the rugged winger, but he has managed a decent season in numbers, despite the injuries and the illnesses, picking up 19 goals and 45 points in 65 games.

When Okposo was hot, Wes was moving up in the standings, but he cooled down, along with a good portion of the rest of Wes' team and his team currently sits in 18th, only 5 points up on 22nd and 5 points back of 17th.  There's still some movement left in his season, one would think.

It sounds as if the Los Angeles Kings are trying everything they can to get some life out of their lineup, since they don't have much room for error in the Western Conference playoff race. Marian Gaborik was a healthy scratch ahead of the game against the Oilers, but that wasn't the change that was needed, as they dropped the game, 2-1 in regulation, thus dropping their tragic number to 4, which means any combination of losses and wins, mostly by St. Louis, will eliminate them.

This is more of a note for whether or not the Kings actually made the playoffs, as Gaborik does feature on the Playoff Pool sheet, which should be officially live in the next day or so.  I don't think the Kings are going to make it, so this part of the post might be moot.

It was a return to the press box for Rangers forward Pavel Buchnevich, who wasn't asked to dress for the game in San Jose on Tuesday night.  Of course, this has been a regular occurrence and he comes off the list, when he returned to the lineup over the weekend and then he gets added to the list again, when he is scratched again.  Thankfully, this should only happen one more time on the blog, at the very most.

It's not exactly guaranteed, but it does look like Tony's team will finish 23rd this season and there isn't any trophy or adulation for the spot.  And since we're back to the randomness of the bingo balls to determine the drafting order, there's no guarantee that Tony will get a good pick next season either.

San Jose Sharks forward Logan Couture took a puck in the mouth over the weekend and the damage was fairly severe, losing a number of teeth and spending a lot of quality time with the team dentist on Monday. Couture was not able to dress on Tuesday night for the game against the Rangers and there is no actual timetable for his return, but he could probably use the rest ahead of the playoffs.

This is a tough break for Brenda & Seward, who didn't quite get the points they needed to keep the pace on Tuesday night, as their team only has 9 points this week and they now trail Eric's team by 10 points, with Ryan's team now in between them.  The duo could really use Couture back soon.