Knee Surgery Sidelines Quick Again

It's been a horrible start to the season for Los Angeles Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick, as he has landed on the Injured Reserve again.  This will be his second time on the IR this season, already having missed five games to a lower-body injury, this time it will be another lower-body injury, a torn meniscus in his knee, which required surgery.  He will be out indefinitely.

Two more injuries this season will now land Quick on the Injury Prone List next summer, as he has missed a considerable amount of time in the last few years and he is a high-risk pick in any hockey pool draft these days.

The 32-year old has only appeared in four games this season, failing to win one decision and leaving with no points on the board.

This will undoubtedly be a huge disappointment to Derek B. and his pool team, which is dangerously close to the bottom of the draft standings, sitting 24th, but 7 points clear of last place at the start of Wednesday night.  Derek has been fortunate to have one very good goalie to somewhat make-up for Quick's lack of wins, as Frederik Andersen in Toronto has been doing well so far.

Morning Player Notes (Oct 31)

Detroit Red Wings forward Andreas Athanasiou reportedly suffered an undisclosed injury on the weekend against the Dallas Stars and that had forced him from Tuesday night's contest against the Columbus Blue Jackets.  The Red Wings did not confirm any details about the injury last night, only saying that he was day-to-day.  The Red Wings are at home to New Jersey on Thursday night, so we're hopeful that we'll see something from the team by then, if not earlier. 

It has been a rough start to the week for Jesse's team, which has only managed 1 point in the first two nights of the week, now currently sitting in the Basement Dweller spot.  His team can still recover from this rough spot they're in, but missing out on a skater game isn't going to help.  Athanasiou has 6 points in his first 11 games this year, not scoring at a terrible rate early on.

The New York Islanders gave the Pittsburgh Penguins a pretty good once over on Tuesday night, winning 6-3, but in the win, they lost goaltender Robin Lehner, who was forced from the game in the 2nd period with a reported muscle strain. There was no indication where the strain was, being a goalie, you would be assuming lower-body, but there's no confirmation, so it's difficult to say.  Lehner still managed to get credit for the win, but the injury is a pretty solid loss for the club.

Chelsea's team still managed to collect the 2 points for the victory, but we can't say how long the keeper is going to be out for.  Her team is off to a good start this week, already picking up 9 points and has moved up three spots to 18th, but it's a reasonable question to ask whether or not those gains will last with this injury.

It was a trip up to the press box for New York Rangers forward Pavel Buchnevich, who has drawn the ire of the coaching staff of late for his performances.  In 10 games this season, the Russian forward has 3 goals and 5 points, good enough for 250th overall in hockey pool scoring, but certainly not good enough for his coach, so he was a healthy scratch on Tuesday night.  The Rangers won in the shootout, 4-3, against the Sharks and a win usually means it will be difficult for a player to draw back into the lineup, so we'll have to wait and see.

Steve took Buchnevich with his 7th round pick, 163rd overall, so he hasn't been getting the production that he would have expected by now from him.  Steve's team isn't doing too badly with a slumping player on his side, sitting in 2nd place, 2 points back of 1st and 2 points up on 3rd place.

The Pittsburgh Penguins were without the injury prone defenseman Kris Letang on Tuesday night against the New York Islanders, as he is currently listed as out day-to-day with a lower-body injury.  There wasn't a lot to the injury news itself, suggesting that the injury could be minor, but who's really to say with Letang?  He has had a long history of injuries in his career and some have crept out of nowhere to be some long-term issues.

Letang was certainly one of the few bright spots for Jeremy's team in the early part of the season, ranking 7th among all defensemen in the pool with 4 goals and 11 points in his first nine games.  Sadly, that is one of Jeremy's few bright spots, down in 19th place after Tuesday night's action.

It was a good night for returning players from injury, as Torey Krug of the Bruins made his season debut, Joe Thornton of the Sharks came back from his knee infection, Alexander Radulov of the Stars was back from his lower-body injury and Cory Schneider of the Devils made his season debut in relief of Keith Kinkaid last night.  All of these returns should make up for the lost games above them, evening out the losses.  Mike, Dale C., Benson and Tony all received some good gains there, for sure.

Goalie Announcements (Oct 30)

The ebbs and flows of this regular season sees a flood of games tonight after only two last night and only one game tomorrow... what are we going to do with ourselves with this glutton of games?  Get points, of course!

11 games going tonight, a good opportunity to rack up some points and for those teams still in need of wins for the survivor pool, there's a decent chance that you're probably getting a start tonight. 

Of the 12 teams still in the mix, both Chelsea and Brian have qualified, leaving 10 teams to still find their win tonight.  Eight of those teams appear to have starts, unofficially.

David Rittich (Ryan) versus Carter Hutton (Wes)
Ryan gets the first of two starts in Buffalo tonight, as David Rittich will go for the Flames on the road, while Wes will get his only start from the Sabres' net, with Carter Hutton back in there tonight.  Wes is one of those eight teams looking for a win to move on in the survivor pool tonight.

Robin Lehner (Chelsea) versus Matt Murray (Wilton)
Wilton has another one of those teams looking to move on this week and his only start of the night comes from the Penguins and Matt Murray.  Chelsea already has her win this week, but I don't think she would be too disappointed if Robin Lehner and the Islanders took a win out on the road.  2 points is 2 points.

Jaroslav Halak (Stacey M.) versus Scott Darling (Ryan)
Stacey M. gets two cracks at her qualifying win for this week tonight and the first one comes in Carolina, where she has the visiting goalie in Jaroslav Halak and the Bruins.  Ryan gets his second start of the night from Scott Darling's season debut with the Hurricanes, an exciting night for Ryan and his team.  Finally!  Two healthy goalies.

Jimmy Howard (Tony) versus Joonas Korpisalo (Clayton)
Two teams already ousted from the survivor pool will see their goalies go in Columbus tonight, Jimmy Howard for Tony and the Red Wings, taking on Joonas Korpisalo for Clayton and the Blue Jackets.  This one is all about the points in the standings!

Ben Bishop (Clayton) versus Carey Price (Stacey M.)
Both Clayton and Stacey M. get their second starts in Montreal, as Clayton's top goalie, Ben Bishop, could play spoiler against Carey Price and the Canadiens, assuming Stacey doesn't get her win in the earlier game (by a half hour).

Keith Kinkaid (Neil) versus Andrei Vasilevskiy (Dale C.)
Both Neil and Dale C. are looking for qualifying wins tonight and this is the only game for both of them, which means that one of these teams will leave Tampa Bay's action empty-handed.  This could be a pretty good game to watch, if one was so inclined.

Malcolm Subban (Eric) versus Juuse Saros (Eric)
Although the Nashville keeper isn't confirmed at the time of the post, it is fair to assume that Eric will be taking a win out of the Golden Knights and Predators match-up tonight.  Malcolm Subban has indeed been tapped for the start and Juuse Saros should be going for the Predators and Eric still needs his win this week, so this game will work out in his favour, barring a catastrophe.

Alex Stalock (N/A) versus Cam Talbot (Mike)
The Minnesota Wild played last night, so Mike's goalie, still in need of giving him a qualifying win, may have an easier shot at it in Edmonton.  Cam Talbot has been tapped for Mike's team and the Oilers against the Wild, but the Wild players may be a bit ornery, losing in Vancouver last night.

Mike Condon (N/A) versus Antti Raanta (Brian)
Brian doesn't need a win anymore this week, but his team needs to pad their lead in 1st place, which they took with the win they got on Monday night.  Antti Raanta will go uncontested (in the pool) for the Coyotes, as they play host to the Senators.

Brian Elliott (Jeremy) versus Ryan Miller (Benson)
Benson's goalie can play spoiler tonight, as Ryan Miller will go for an eliminated goalie pool team, playing against Brian Elliott and the Flyers, giving Jeremy his only shot at a goalie win tonight.  The Flyers and Ducks are both off to decent starts this year, making this a pretty good game in the schedule.

Henrik Lundqvist (Scott) versus Martin Jones (Brenda & Seward)
Finally, it's a battle in the basement, with Scott's goalie taking on the goalie for the duo down near the bottom, belonging to Brenda & Seward.  Henrik Lundqvist and Scott's team needs to make up 8 points to catch 23rd and 24th place, but Brenda & Seward will be looking to Martin Jones to help pad the gap from 23rd to 25th.

Goalie Announcements (Oct 29)

It's a quiet start to Week Five with only two games on the schedule, involving three of the Canadian clubs,  which is pretty interesting.  Three out of the four starting goalies are still active in the goalie survivor pool, so there could be one or two teams qualifying nice and early on in the week.

Mike Smith (Brian) versus Frederik Andersen (Derek B.)
The only team already eliminated from the survivor pool is Derek B.'s team, so it can concentrate on keeping itself out of the hockey pool basement, opening the week 7 points clear of last place.  A start from Frederik Andersen in the Leafs should be a positive for that, one would think.

At the other end of the ice, Brian's team gets a start out of Mike Smith and the visiting Flames and his team has seen some very good fortunes of late, moving up to 2nd place overall in the pool, 1 point back of 1st place and his team is still very familiar with the survivor pool.  Can the good times keep rolling for his team this week?

Devan Dubnyk (Wes) versus Jacob Markstrom (Chelsea)
In the late game tonight, it's a battle in the bottom half of the standings, as Wes' 16th place team will see his goalie go up against Chelsea's goalie from her 21st place team.  The two teams are separated by only 5 points at the start of play tonight and still within reasonable range of the money teams, so there's still a lot to play for.

And if they're playing for nothing, like the survivor pool, then they're in luck!  They're still in it.