Afternoon Player Notes (Oct 28)

It sounds like the flu bug is making its annual tour through the NHL these days. New Jersey Devils forward Marcus Johansson was one player affected by the bug, missing out on Saturday's game against the Panthers.  The bug should be of the day-to-day variety, so I wouldn't expect him to be out for very long.  In seven games this season, the Swede has 1 goal and 2 points, hardly living up to many expectations early on.

Count this one as a missed man-game for Wilton's team, a team that has been suffering over the last couple of weeks.  His team got off to a good start, 7th after Week One, but has dropped spots in each of the last three weeks, right now sitting in 22nd.

Depending on which reports you may have read, it looks like Derick Brassard has been dealing with a bit of a lower-body injury these days and it kept him out of the game against the Canucks on Saturday night.  He's listed as day-to-day, but there is no indication about when he might be finding his way back to the lineup here.  In eight games played, the veteran winger has 1 goal and 5 points, not doing too badly, when he's in the lineup.

Chelsea could have used his services last night with her team only posting some average numbers in Week Four, 22 points collected with play already underway on Sunday.  Her team has moved up a spot in the standings this week, which is good news, but it hasn't moved up a bunch of spots, which would be ideal.

Here's another player bitten by the flu bug, as Toronto defenseman Travis Dermott was sidelined at the back end of the week with the bug.  He was actually cleared to play in Saturday afternoon's contest against the Jets, but the team decided that it would be better for him to rest up and sit out of that game, leaving his spot to Martin Marincin.  Dermott hasn't been overly productive either this season, only posting 1 assist in his first nine games this year.

Dermott has been the weak link on Brian's blueline, so far this season, ranking last of the four on his team, but he may not have minded so much this week, as his team is in the running for Mover & Shaker, not to mention, moving up to 2nd place in the process.

Don't expect to see Max Pacioretty in Vegas' lineup tonight, when they take on the Ottawa Senators at home. The Golden Knights coaching staff has announced that Pacioretty is dealing with an upper-body injury, playing coy as to whether or not it may be a concussion.  For now, he's listed as out day-to-day, the team may just be waiting on some more test results before they get too official with his timeline, but for now he's out.  In 10 games played already, the off-season acquisition has only scored 2 goals and still hasn't quite found his groove there yet.

Stuart's team has seen some gains this week, a decent week in scoring has only tightened some gaps between his and other teams, staying in 8th place, but a loss like this could hurt in the next week or more, if the injury is more significant.