Afternoon Player Notes in the Draft (Dec 27)

What did the Anaheim Ducks get for Christmas? A healthy Ryan Kesler!  Yes, the aggravating centre will be back in the lineup tonight against the Vegas Golden Knights, making his first appearance on the ice this season.  The off-season hip surgery that Kesler had took quite a bit longer than initially anticipated, but now he's ready to go for his first game.

Stuart lost out on three weeks since he picked up Kesler in the Waiver Draft, but he's thinking that he would be better than anything that was available in the swap, so he took his chance.  Stuart's team opens up the week in the hunt, 13 points out of the money, 25 out of 1st.

The Ottawa Senators open their schedule in Boston tonight and their lineup will be invigorated by the returns of Dion Phaneuf (personal reasons), Bobby Ryan (finger injury) and Craig Anderson (illness), all three were day-to-day and didn't play in the team's last game before the break.  Normally, this sort of thing wouldn't illicit a post spot, but it's still my holidays, so why the hell not?

Neil, Stacey C. and Tony have their players coming back and it sounds like Tony is getting the start tonight for Anderson.  Neil's team still has three players on the shelf, even with Phaneuf coming back, as does Stacey, while Tony's team will have one left on the shelf.  All three teams are on the wrong side of the equator in the standings and it's fair to say that injuries are a big part of that.