Afternoon Player Notes in the Draft (Mar 29)

Well, it was a short-lived return from injury for Flyers goalie Michal Neuvirth, as he did return from a lower-body injury on Wednesday night, when his team visited the Avalanche, but he left in the 2nd period with another, or possibly a re-aggravated, lower-body injury. Fortunately for his numbers, he was the goalie of record for the team's 2-1 win, but the injury is certainly a damper on the celebration. There's still no word on the extent of his injury, but this isn't what the Flyers were hoping for, as we near the playoffs.

For Troy, his team picked up another 2 points from his goalie's return, which helped lift his team to a pool-leading 21 points this week, but that's where the good news kind of ends.  I can't imagine he's up for good news before the end of the regular season, but we'll see.

There was a little bit of shuffling in the Vegas Golden Knights lineup on Wednesday night, before their 3-2 loss to the Arizona Coyotes.  Deryk Engelland returned from his undisclosed injury, which was a positive, but Brad Hunt had to come out of the lineup, as a healthy scratch, to make room.  Forward David Perron was also held out of the lineup, suffering from an undisclosed injury of his own.  He's currently day-to-day, no updates on his status at the moment.  The Golden Knights play again on Friday, hosting the Blues.

Engelland's return was Steve's gain and Derek B.'s loss, with Hunt coming out.  Perron's absence didn't help Mike's team at all.  The Golden Knights continue to have plenty of roster action this season, but it hasn't had a great effect on the top of the standings.

It sounds to me, like Philipp Grubauer was afforded a night off on Wednesday, listed as dealing with an undisclosed injury, as Braden Holtby got the start on the night and call-up Pheonix Copley spent one more night on the bench.  Grubauer is likely going to return to his backup role this weekend, as Copley has been returned to the minors on Thursday, which led me to believe that this was more of a rest.  Of course, that's just a slight speculation on my part, because Copley could come back up in time for Friday night's home game, if Grubauer needs another night off.

At the end of the day, Grant is still getting starts from his Capitals tandem, since Copley hasn't seen much action in his time up with the club.  The Capitals want to finish the regular season strong, as they really need some playoff success this year.

Some news that dropped on Thursday morning... Derick Brassard of the Penguins isn't expected to dress in tonight's game against the Devils, due to a lower-body injury, believed to be a groin issue.  The Penguins can ill-afford to have Brassard not at (or close to) 100% come playoff time, especially since it appears that they'll either draw an excellent team in the opening round of the playoffs, given how close the standings are on Thursday afternoon.

Brassard has been a reasonable contributor to Wes' PIM pool push, picking up 34 minutes in 72 games this season.  He's no goon, but he's not too bad either.  Wes' team is 66 minutes clear of Neil's team today, with 11 days left in the season.