Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Dec 5)

Florida Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo had to leave last night's game against the New York Islanders after suffering a lower-body injury while making a save in the 2nd period of the game.  Luongo had to be helped off the ice by the training staff, suggesting that the injury could be fairly significant.  The team will have their goalie assessed with an MRI later on Tuesday, so we'll see how long he'll actually be out for, but I would not think that this will be a day-to-day issue and we should expect to see a recall quite soon.

One of the usual happenings after the Waiver Draft happens, an injury of much significance drops right away.  Stuart was supposed get a start out of this game, which technically he did, but there was no decision for his goalie, keeping his Monday night total to zero points, dropping his team from 4th to 7th in one quiet night.

The blueline rotation continues on with the Islanders, which has pretty well be limited to pool defenseman Dennis Seidenberg and non-pool defenseman Thomas Hickey and last night in Florida, it was Seidenberg who came out after a couple games back in the lineup, making way for Hickey.  This is going to be the norm for the next little while, by the look of things.

Neil had a lot of irons in the fire, when it came to the Waiver Draft, so it wasn't like Seidenberg was going to be one of his top priorities.  Neil had a couple of major injuries and a player in the minors, so you could see how important they were ahead of a healthy scratch.

The Washington Capitals also lost the services of forward T.J. Oshie on Monday night, when San Jose Sharks forward Joe Thornton caught him in the head along the boards in an awkward looking hit.  Oshie was already halfway down to the ice, when Thornton caught his head with his hip and it didn't look too pretty.  Tuesday morning didn't have much for updates on Oshie's status, so we'll be keeping an eye on the Capitals to see what they're expecting for a return.

On Steve's team, he might have a good shot at the plus/minus title at the moment and Oshie being on the Capitals scoring machine, should have improved his odds, assuming he could stay healthy.  Oshie is only a +1 through Week Nine, thanks to a lot of his associated scoring is on the power play, which doesn't count in that pool.  Here's hoping for a quick return for him then.