The upper-body injury that Los Angeles Kings forward Dustin Brown suffered last night has been confirmed as a broken finger and he is currently out indefinitely. Broken fingers are somewhat inconsistent, when it comes to timetables for a return, some guys can return fairly quickly (a week or two), while others can be out upwards of a month. It will depend on the kind of break and the pain threshold that Brown can withstand, which will determine how quickly he comes back.Last season, Brown was quite the dynamo, picking up 61 points in 81 games for the Kings and the expectations for him were somewhat of a mixed bag. The projections on this site were up around the 50-point mark, while the Hockey News saw a real regression coming up for him, giving him 40 points. This injury certainly won't help his cause any.
Pool newcomer Jesse has a decision to make, as Brown is eligible for the preseason waivers, but the question becomes, is there anyone available that would be worth taking in Brown's place? My own personal list suggests that there could be a few 40-point forwards still hanging around, so the decision is real.
We're ready to flip another page on the calendar over and that will finally bring us to October and we all know what that means... hockey season is starting!
First, the returning game and it will be the rookies taking centre stage again in the pool. We had 20 rookies taken during the draft and they are spread out over 15 of the 25 teams, four of those teams have multiple rookies, Clayton leading the way with three freshmen (Pettersson, Donato & Cholowski).
Next up on the list is the shootout goals, which is a brand new mini-game and I'm still working on how that will be presented on the website this year, but it is an interesting stat, which has no bearing on the overall scoring, since shootout goals don't count in the player stats, but they still decide wins and losses in the league, so there you go.
Talk about deciding wins and losses, game-winning goals, usually a playoff pool staple, will now be kept track of in the regular season and teams will be hoping for those clutch goals in-game for some mini-game points. Last year, if this was a mini-game, our pool champion Stuart, would have won it with 52 game winners and that was 7 goals better than his nearest competitor. I'm sure this will prove to be an interesting game.
The Detroit Red Wings blueline is going to be challenged even further, if Niklas Kronwall can't start the season on the right foot. The Wings coaching staff have said that the veteran blueliner has tweaked something and his status for opening night, Thursday, at home to Columbus, is in doubt. He's considered day-to-day for right now, but it doesn't look great for the Wings, who are already without Jonathan Ericsson and Trevor Daley.
The Los Angeles Kings are waiting for an update on forward Dustin Brown, who suffered an upper-body injury in Saturday night's preseason contest against the Ducks, leaving the game in the 2nd period, not to return. The initial reaction from the team didn't sound overly positive, so it seems somewhat unlikely that he will be ready to go for the team's opening night, Friday night, at home to the Sharks.
The goaltending situation in Philadelphia was awfully rocky, with injuries happening left, right and centre to goalies for the Flyers and it looked like Carter Hart might be the recipient of some early season minutes with the team. That doesn't appear to be the case now, as he was sent down to the AHL on Sunday, where he will likely end up being the number one guy for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The injury bug could certainly be back to bite the Flyers, which would give Hart his opportunity, but for now, he'll have to be patient.
The Columbus Blue Jackets got a welcome return back to their lineup as defenseman Zach Werenski made his preseason debut against the Penguins in a good rivalry game on Friday night. Werenski was one of three Jackets players to register 4 points in a 7-6 barn burner for the home side. Artemi Panarin and Cam Atkinson were the other two with big nights, while Nick Foligno had a goal and an assist and Sergei Bobrovsky went the distance, making 23 saves for the win.
From Oshawa, ON, the Sabres and Islanders had themselves a neutral site game and they gave the non-NHL market a pretty good show, the Sabres taking this one 5-4 in regulation. Jeff Skinner led the way for Buffalo with a pair of goals, Zemgus Girgensons and Rasmus Dahlin each had a goal and an assist and Carter Hutton made 27 saves for the win. If the Sabres are indeed going to make big improvements over last year, we're going to see a lot of these guys through the year.
Lots of goals in Washington as well, as the Hurricanes and Capitals went back-and-forth all night and into overtime, but the extra frame didn't last too long, as Sebastian Aho scored his 2nd goal of the night only 19 seconds in to end it in favour of the visitors, 5-4. Aho also added an assist for a 3-point night, outdone by Teuvo Teravainen, who had a goal and 3 assists for a 4-point night. Let's also tack on 2-assist efforts from both Warren Foegele and Jaccob Slavin, 25 saves from Petr Mrazek and you have yourself a complete effort.
On the shoulders of their special teams, the Toronto Maple Leafs gave a good lickin' to the Detroit Red Wings at home on Friday night, 6-2. Three power play goals and a shortie in the 2nd period paved the way to a big victory and you can see their confidence is riding pretty high. Frederik Andersen made 23 saves for the win, Josh Leivo had 3 assists, Jake Gardiner scored a pair, Patrick Marleau went one and one and then Connor Brown and Auston Matthews had a pair of helpers each. The Leafs have some decisions to make still, which could hinder picking up a good sleeper from Toronto, but you can probably make some good educated guesses by now.
With all of these teams making big changes and doing some good things in this preseason, the St. Louis Blues didn't want you to forget that they made some changes too, but it's going to be a lot of the same ol' St. Louis scoring touch that gets them their wins. On Friday night, it was a lot of the familiar faces on the scoresheet, like Jaden Schwartz (goal and 2 assists) or Vladimir Tarasenko (goal and an assist), getting the job done in a 3-1 win over the Dallas Stars. Jake Allen already appears to be rolling his way into form, making 21 saves for the win and even adding an assist as well.
The Central Division is going to be chalk-full of goals this year and the Avalanche beating the Wild, 4-3 in overtime, is a good indication of that. Philipp Grubauer got the nod for the Avs last night, making 21 saves for the win, but it was sophomore forward Alex Kerfoot making waves, scoring a goal and adding a pair of assists to lead the way. Tyson Barrie also got a nod from the blog for his 2 assists on the night as well.
Vegas finally got to insert defenseman Shea Theodore into their lineup on Friday night, as he was finally made available to play after a long-ish holdout for a new contract. The move paid off, as Theodore did register an assist in the Vegas' 2-0 win over the Kings, highlighted by Marc-Andre Fleury's 26-save shutout.
More injury problems in Montreal, as David Schlemko has been ruled out of action for the next six weeks to a knee injury, suffered Wednesday night against Toronto. Schlemko was on the projected roster, considered to be more of a fringe defender, but with how the roster was shaping up, he could have seen the minutes to be a bit more than a fringe guy early on. Now, with this injury, he may only find his way to the hockey pool through the Waiver Draft in Week Nine.
The New York Rangers have unofficially sorted out their 23-man roster on Friday, sending a handful of players down to the AHL and placing another handful on waivers in order to assign them as well. Going down includes projected roster forwards Lias Andersson and Peter Holland and in their place sit Brett Howden, Filip Chytil and Vinni Letteri. On defense, Neal Pionk was among those staying up and there were no real surprise demotions. In goal, Alexandar Georgiev came away with the backup spot behind Henrik Lundqvist and Marek Mazanec was the odd-man out, among those goalies sent down.
The goaltending decision has been made official in Edmonton, as the team placed Al Montoya on waivers for the purpose of assignment on Friday. It was somewhat expected in the off-season that this would be the case, when the Oilers signed Mikko Koskinen to a much larger contract to come over from Europe, but Montoya did have the chance to play his way back into the spot, but it doesn't appear that happened. The Oilers are getting the waiver situation out of the way now, as they head to Europe to start the season with the New Jersey Devils, taking waiver-exempt goalie Shane Starrett with them for the trip.
The Ottawa Senators are still currently trying to figure out their muddled madness of a roster, keeping Zack Smith around after he had cleared waivers, but late on Thursday night, they opted to send down forward Filip Chlapik and defenseman Christian Wolanin after their game in Chicago. This opens the door for Max McCormick to take the last forward spot on the roster and there's still a battle for the last blueline spot between Christian Jaros and Max Lajoie, both having played well against the Blackhawks.
The Philadelphia Flyers are erring on the side of caution in regards to a police investigation in Finland, which involves one of their forwards, Jori Lehtera. Lehtera's name has been involved with an investigation with a major cocaine ring back in his home country and the 30-year old has removed himself from the team while this investigation takes place. Lehtera maintains his innocence, but the distraction needed to be taken away from the team and that is what has been done. He is, at best, a fringe player for the hockey pool, but we could be going deep this year and his name pop up.
From Orlando, FL, the Panthers and Lightning squared off in a neutral site game, bringing the ice cold action to another one of those hot spots in the south. Lightning, too, brought the heat on the evening, lighting up the Panthers, 6-2, and raking in the points, even without Nikita Kucherov or Tyler Johnson in the lineup. Mathieu Joseph led the way for the Bolts, scoring a pair of goals and adding an assist and it was a collection of Lightning players with 2 points a piece, including Alex Killorn, Brayden Point, Anthony Cirelli, Victor Hedman and goalie Louis Domingue. Tampa is running hot and they'll be hard to stop.
A fairly solid offensive outing between the Devils and Jets at the Bell MTS Centre in Winnipeg last night, as the visitors kept some of their 2018 mojo going with a 5-3 win. Keith Kinkaid, the projected starter for the Devils on opening night, made 21 saves in the victory, Kyle Palmieri and Sami Vatanen each had a goal and an assist and Taylor Hall and Marcus Johansson each had a pair of assists. These Devils could still be the real thing with that kind of lineup.
The lowly Ottawa Senators went into Chicago on Thursday night and actually came away with a 2-1 win over their hosts on the night, probably surprising many. Both teams had very close to completed rosters on the night and the Sens buckled down and got the win. Mike Condon, the favourite for the Senators backup spot, made 27 saves for the win and in a low scoring game like this, he was the only notable player to speak of.
The Coyotes and Oilers tangled at Rogers Place and this one needed overtime to settle and it was Connor McDavid, scoring his 2nd of the night, winning it for the home side, 3-2. Mikko Koskinen has the leg up on the backup job now in Edmonton, after a 25-save effort for the victory, not to mention the bigger dollar value on his contract.
Finally, in the late, late game at the Shark Tank, the Flames used four straight goals in the early part of the game to put their lead together, enough for them to hold on and win away, 4-3. Mike Smith made 23 saves for the win for Calgary, Elias Lindholm and Travis Hamonic each had a goal and an assist and Mikael Backlund continued a good preseason with another pair of assists in the win.