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.