Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Mar 7)

Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky was feeling under the weather on Tuesday and it was decided that he would get the night off from action, when his team took on the Vegas Golden Knights at home. The team performed admirably in his absence, beating the Western Conference juggernauts, 4-1, giving Joonas Korpisalo the win instead. Bobrovsky is day-to-day for right now and he is likely probable for Thursday night, when the Jackets host the Avalanche.

I'm sure Derek B. would have liked that win in his point total, just for the sake of those points. There isn't too much left for his team to play for, unless he can get back to the equator of the standings, as his team now stands 2 points out of 13th, down in 16th. The 25th ranked hockey pool player has been pretty good for Derek this season, but he was picked 5th overall, so maybe not producing to the highest of expectations.

The Nashville Predators opted to give forward Kyle Turris the night off on Tuesday, making him into a healthy scratch or so we are to believe. We were under the impression that Roman Josi was getting some extra rest last week, but it did turn out that he had an upper-body injury and he's still sitting out. Now, all we've seen is that Turris is getting a rest and maybe he is, but we'll keep an eye on this, just in case.

Troy's team is also looking at the equator of the standings with his pool team, as he head down the home stretch to the playoffs.  Troy's team finished up Tuesday night in 19th place, only 10 points back of 13th.

It sounds like Mika Zibanejad was also feeling under the weather on Tuesday night, as he was held out of the Rangers/Jets game at Madison Square Garden. The flu bug that has been traveling through the league hasn't been that bad, only lasting for one game on average, so I would expect the Swede back in the lineup on Thursday in Tampa Bay.

Brian's team is not off to the best of starts this week, having only 2 points after two nights, tied with Scott's team for the Basement Dweller lead and missing out on Zibanejad's contributions certainly didn't help his cause.  Thankfully, Brian's team appears to have plenty of games left to rectify this issue.

The injuries seem to be mounting for the Vegas Golden Knights, as they also lost the services of forward Reilly Smith against the Blue Jackets last night. Smith left in the 2nd period, after taking a hit and went off the ice, favouring his left side, according to one report.  There was no update after the game and we'll probably have to wait until either later on today or just before their next game, Thursday night in Detroit.  If there's no update on the blog, consider him day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

It's a pretty good bubble that Stacey C.'s team currently occupies.  9 points back of 21st and 10 points up on 23rd, but losing one of his more consistent scorers, a Week Nine pickup in Smith, who has 39 points in 40 games since being activated, could burst that bubble in a hurry.