Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Mar 9)

Montreal Canadiens forward Phillip Danault sat out of Thursday night's game against the Florida Panthers, due to some neck stiffness and headaches and is currently listed as out day-to-day.  Danault already missed a significant stretch of time this season, due to vertigo symptoms, but returned to action a couple of weeks ago.  It sounds like these two injury items are somewhat related, so it will be interesting to see if the Canadiens shut him down for precautionary reasons, since they don't have a lot left to play for.

Mike's team currently sits in the Basement Dweller spot for Week Twenty-Three, only collecting 8 points through Thursday night's action.  His team isn't short on projected games for the rest of the week, but his players will have to make good use of them.

Well, maybe the Predators are indeed giving nights off to certain players, as Kyle Turris did return to the lineup on Thursday night and Kevin Fiala came out for a rest against the Anaheim Ducks.  Fiala has reportedly been dealing with some kind of nagging issue, so the night was was likely going to be very good for him.  He's considered day-to-day, but could also miss another game, if whatever ails him hasn't sorted itself out with an extra day off.

Stacey M.'s team is currently sitting in 11th, but is 19 points back of the top 10 and her team has done well in the week, picking up 16 points, through Thursday night's action, but it isn't really closing the gap too quickly. 

The St. Louis Blues had prepped the emergency backup goaltender on Thursday night in San Jose, as projected starter Carter Hutton wasn't able to play, due to an apparent neck injury, which forced Jake Allen into action on the night, a 2-0 loss to the Sharks. The Blues made a recall of Ville Husso, but he wasn't going to make it to the Shark Tank on time, so hence the emergency goalie was prepped and ready to go, if needed. There was no word on the severity of Hutton's injury, but he has now missed a start, for what it's worth and he's currently considered day-to-day.

Benson's team isn't going to make up any ground on 2nd place, if he doesn't have his surprise goalie working for him going forward. His team now sits 13 points back of 2nd place, but still safely 39 points ahead of 4th place, so there's no reason to panic... yet!

Winnipeg Jets forward Mark Scheifele suffered an upper-body injury on Tuesday night against the Rangers and that injury was enough to keep him out of the lineup on Thursday night, when his side took on the Devils, pulling a 3-2 victory out in his absence.  The injury isn't considered to be too serious, as the top centre on the team is still traveling with the team, but he's on the questionable side of the ledger, heading into Saturday afternoon's game against the Flyers.  Scheifele is officially day-to-day for now.

Brian's team currently holds the equator spot in the standings, currently 13th, 6 points out of 12th and only 4 points up on 14th.  It's a far cry from where he saw his team in the early parts of the season, but injuries were the crux to his season and it looks like another one may hamper his side a bit more.

In last night's game between the Sabres and Senators, Buffalo forward Kyle Okposo collided with Bobby Ryan, suffering an upper-body injury and was forced to leave the game. The team had no immediate update on the rugged forward, but they said that he will be reevaluated before the weekend's game, Saturday afternoon against Vegas. Until further notice, Okposo will be considered to be day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Wes' hold on the PIM pool title for the 2018 season looks to be rather safe, at this point in time, even with Okposo going down. Okposo has posted 32 minutes in penalties this season, so he's by no means a goon, but he does contribute from time-to-time. Not every game has been counted for PIM this week and Wes currently carries an 83-minute lead over Grant's team through Thursday night.