Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Mar 9)

The Boston Bruins started to adjust to life without forward Ryan Spooner on Wednesday night against Detroit and it seemed like the adjustment went pretty well. The Boston forward was knocked out of Monday's game against Ottawa and is now in the thick of the NHL's concussion protocol, which will cost the forward this week's action, if not more next week and beyond. It's hard to say the actual time frame right now, especially since we're moving closer to the playoffs.

Missing out on a 6-1 drubbing could be the first of a bunch of big games that Cam will miss out on, now that his player is on the shelf and his chances of the money seem to be fading very quickly.  His team is 22 points back of 3rd place, down in 10th and is not off to a great start in the week.

A couple of lower-body injuries ripped through the Columbus Blue Jackets lineup on Tuesday night, as they were without forward Josh Anderson and defenseman Ryan Murray. Anderson is expected to miss 7-to-10 days, while Murray is day-to-day for the club. The Jackets don't play again until Friday night in Buffalo and we know that Anderson will be out for that one, but Murray is still up in the air.

Anderson was a Waiver Draft pick-up for Mike's team, but hasn't exactly been tearing it up since being active, having only 14 points in 40 games.  Mike has seen his team surge though, taking the lead in the Mover & Shaker race this week, already with 14 points.  Tony's team, on the other hand, has moved into a safer spot in 23rd spot and is off to an okay start this week, picking up 9 points so far.  Tony won't likely miss Murray too much.

Minnesota Wild defenseman Matt Dumba was held out of Tuesday night's game against the Blues, due to feeling a bit under the weather. The reports out of Minnesota were quick to knock mumps off the list for the young defender, but if it is that flu bug that has been floating around, it has been pretty brutal at times, costing a couple to a few games for some players. The Wild are in Tampa tonight and Dumba is listed as day-to-day.

Troy's goon squad is starting to make some noise, now that the games are starting to mean something and divisional opponents are more likely to dance or take dumb penalties.  Dumba has been a contributor to Troy's PIM totals this season, so he's hoping that a quick recovery is in order.

An upper-body injury is the reason why Tomas Plekanec was out of the lineup on Tuesday night in Vancouver and the Czech veteran was not at practice on Wednesday, already ruled out of Thursday night's game in Calgary.  Plekanec is considered to be day-to-day, but his participation on the Western Canada road trip is really hanging in the balance.  There's no word on where and when he suffered the injury, which is a bit perplexing, but the Habs are still rolling, so it isn't a big deal... yet.

Stuart could use Plekanec's help this week, as his team is in fear of dropping below 11th, where they stand right now.  His team only has 4 points after three nights of action, only 1 point better than the current Basement Dwellers.

The Ottawa Senators are sitting fairly comfortably in the playoff spot in the Eastern Conference races, so there was no need to rush forward Kyle Turris back from a finger injury, which the player said he would try to play through.  The team wants to make sure that he is 100% when he returns.  Turris is thought to be day-to-day and the injury doesn't seem to be considered serious, which is good news, I suppose.

The 27-year old has been decent for Benson this season, picking up 44 points in 64 games, but Benson's pool team had faltered midway through the year and Turris' production did dry up a bit after a good start.  Benson's team dropped another spot this week, now sitting in 14th.

There's another concussion to note here this morning.  The Pittsburgh Penguins are going to be playing without Patric Hornqvist for the next week or more, since he should be under the NHL protocol for concussions, with the announcement that he wasn't going to dress for the game last night against the Winnipeg Jets.  It doesn't sound like a major concussion, as the team hasn't quite ruled him out on this road trip, which could see him back on the ice next Wednesday in Philadelphia, possibly the Monday night in Calgary, depending on when the injury occurred and the protocol had started.

It's probably fair to say that Derek B. has been disappointed with the regular season production rate of Hornqvist, only 37 points in 58 games for the high-powered Penguins, but his team could eye the top 20 with a good run in the last month of the season.