Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Jan 31)

It hasn't been a good run of games in the last week for Anaheim's John Gibson, as he left the Ducks game before the break with a minor injury, but was able to start last night against the Bruins.  He was forced from that game too, with an undisclosed injury, but he was on the ice, when the winning goal was scored, so he did get credit for the 2 points against the Bruins.  There was no post-game update on his condition, but until otherwise posted, he's considered day-to-day.

In Vancouver last night, the Colorado Avalanche were in to face the Canucks and the left the game with an overtime loss and without the health of their top player, forward Nathan MacKinnon.  MacKinnon collided awkwardly with Alex Edler, taking the worst of the collision that he initiated and had to leave the game looking rather worse for wear, dealing with some visible shoulder pain.  There was also no immediate update on his condition after the game, nor a timeline for a return, so we'll wait impatiently to see what is happening with the pool's 3rd-best scorer.

This a horrible turn of events for Tony's team, which had been making some serious strides in a positive direction in the standings, jumping up to 6th, after a pretty good night in the scoring columns on Tuesday night.  If either one of these injuries to Gibson and/or MacKinnon become serious, so much of that positive head way could disappear.  Stay tuned!

A high, late, blindsided hit knocked out Boston Bruins forward David Backes on Tuesday night, in that game against the Ducks. The hit, delivered by Nick Ritchie, sparked quite the bruhaha in the game, but the injury report after the game was that he did get his bell rung, but the coaching staff didn't know much more than that right away.  It certainly didn't look very good and we'll expect an update in the next day or so, with the Bruins playing again on Thursday night.

Definitely not great news for Neil's team, which hasn't had a lot of luck with Backes this season, with his other medical issues this year.  Backes has only given him 31 games worth of action and only 19 points in those games.