Noon Player Notes (Nov 29)

The Carolina Hurricanes have made their decision in net and Scott Darling has been tapped as the odd-man out.

The Hurricanes have been running with three goalies ever since the start of the season, when they picked up Curtis McElhinney off of waivers and Petr Mrazek still has his spot from the beginning of the year and those two will now make the duo moving forward.  If Darling clears, he will be sent down to the AHL, but the Hurricanes are hoping that someone will snap up his $4.15 million annual cap hit, which goes for another two seasons after 2019.

Darling has made six appearances this season, posting 2 wins and 4 points, which has hindered Ryan's team in the hockey pool this season, but a move, with teams looking for goalies, has to be somewhat interesting.  If someone claims Darling, it could be like Ryan getting a new goalie in this Waiver Draft.

Week Nine Waiver Draft (Nov 29)

No matter how much preparation I can do for the Waiver Draft, there is just no way to get around what real life will bring for everyone.  There wasn't a lot of picks done between the last post and this one, but we'll crack on.  At least we made it into the 2nd round of the draft in this post, so that's a big plus!

Continuing on from Wednesday morning's post, Stuart wasn't very far along from making his first pick of the swap and he's banking on a talented young player that got shifted from one team to another, looking for that fresh start in Dylan Strome. Strome was just dealt to Chicago from a underachieving stop in Arizona and now the 3rd overall pick in 2015 will get some hot talent to play with, which does make this an intriguing pickup.

The opening round concluded with Troy's pick, which reportedly required some last-minute tinkering in the afternoon, due to some unfortunate circumstances, where his ideal selection, some Montreal defenseman we'll not name, went six picks ahead of his.  Finally, he came back with a forward selection, picking up Sam Bennett of the Flames, banking on his two-way play to help keep the overall lead in his favour.

Brenda & Seward then opened up the 2nd round of the draft with a selection from the Blue Jackets, picking up Josh Anderson for the preseason star/regular season dud, Ty Rattie.  The duo needed all kinds of help from every angle, but their hands were somewhat tied at to what they could pull off in this draft and now they are paying close, close, microscopic attention to the William Nylander situation.

First thing this morning, Scott jumped on Lars Eller of the Capitals as his pick, as the Dane has been fairly consistent in playing in Washington and registering points.  The disappointment of James Neal in Calgary had reached a fever pitch with his team and indeed it was a disappointment, as the 7th round pick had done very little in the first third of the regular season.

Derek B.'s run for the rookie pool continued on Thursday morning, as he went ahead and dropped Alex Killorn of the Lightning to pick up Brett Howden of the Rangers, the top rookie available in the morning.  Derek has now added two rookie forwards to his side, both of which have been fairly solid and could help his team really make a run in the mini-game.

A pick that really sneaked its way through the ranks was Chelsea picking up Andrew Shaw, who has been hot in Montreal of late, playing on the team's top line for the last week, maybe a bit more, and has been finding some points because of all that space he opens up for his linemates.  I would say Chelsea could have found herself quite the steal in the 2nd round.

The last pick I have on my page this morning is Eric taking a flyer on the injured Viktor Arvidsson in Nashville.  Arvidsson has been out since November 10th with a broken thumb and the team said he could be out from 6-to-8 weeks, which could put him out to January, but at a point-per-game scoring pace, Eric is banking on an early return and then a big push.  Dumping Milan Lucic for him does really make Lucic look bad, doesn't it?

This brings us to Benson's pick...

Morning Player Notes (Nov 29)

There is still no word on what the issue was that kept San Jose forward Timo Meier out of the lineup against Toronto on Wednesday night, so there really isn't an official word out there.  Meier wasn't warming up with the team before the game and didn't come out for the game itself, so we're assuming that there is an injury concern, and with 23 points in 25 games this season, we are fairly certain it wasn't a healthy scratch.  For now, he's day-to-day with an undisclosed injury and if anything else drops, we'll have it on the blog.

Dale C. cannot afford to have his top player fall to any long-term injury, if his plan of coming back to relevance in the standings is going to come to fruition.  Dale's team finished up Wednesday night's action in 19th place, 15 points out of 13th and 22 points out of the top 10. 

Goalie Announcements (Nov 28)

It's hump day in Week Nine, five games on the schedule, all of which have active hockey pool goalies going, although a few of them have been unconfirmed and yes, there is one that doesn't belong in the pool... yet?  Troy may or may not have survival chance tonight, also unconfirmed. 

There are points to be had tonight... come and get some!

Jake Allen (Steve) versus Jimmy Howard (Tony)
The Blues are in Detroit tonight, where we find two goalies playing in the hockey pool, on different halves of the standings equator, nearly equal distance away from the middle too.  Steve's 6th place team is riding high this week, already having posted 11 points and has closed up the gap to 3rd place, down to 13 points, which is good news.  Tony, on the other hand, has struggled a bit this week at 6 points, not too bad though, 16 points back of 13th place (or the equator).

John Gibson (Kristy & Don) versus James Reimer (Dale C.)
The Anaheim Ducks got me again last night... I expected John Gibson, but they went with Ryan Miller.  The only game that wasn't confirmed yesterday and the better bet didn't work.  Gibson should be going tonight, second half of back-to-back games, so the duo get their start here.  Technically, this start is unconfirmed at the time of writing this post too.  James Reimer, however, has been confirmed for the Panthers, as Dale C.'s team is starting to make moves upwards in the standings and he could use 2 points to move closer to the equator too.

Aaron Dell (Troy) versus Frederik Andersen (Derek B.)
The Sharks lost to the Sabres in overtime last night, so it seems fair to think that Troy, our pool leader, may get a start from Aaron Dell the visiting team in Toronto tonight, which would bode well for his lead.  Troy already earned his qualifying win for the survivor game, so it's all about the points tonight.  On the home side, Frederik Andersen is confirmed for the Leafs in a big game for them, a story that doesn't involve goalies, which should probably help Derek chip away at that 74-point gap between his team and 1st place.

Landon Bow (N/A) versus David Rittich (Ryan)
Ryan's team is running quite well this week, 12 points from the first couple nights of action, moved back into 10th place and it has its eyes on the prize right now, running the Flames' new number one goalie, David Rittich, who gets another start tonight from the visiting Stars.  The Stars, on the other hand, are still waiting for their number one to return from injury and back-to-back nights may see a young keeper get a start tonight, as Landon Bow might finally get the nod, but that's still unconfirmed at the time of writing this post.

Tristan Jarry (Neil) versus Philipp Grubauer (Jesse)
Battle of the current backups in Colorado tonight, when the Penguins arrive to stand up against the Avalanche.  Tristan Jarry is the current number two guy in Pittsburgh and he gets his second nod of the season, taking on Philipp Grubauer, a goalie very familiar with these guys after his days in Washington.  This is a good swing game in the hockey pool tonight, Neil's team trails Jesse by 2 points, so a goose egg could have those two teams flip the advantage... or it could get a lot better for Jesse when the night is over.

Afternoon Player Notes (Nov 28)

The New York Rangers announced that forward Vladislav Namestnikov is now in the league's concussion protocol and will not be going out on the road with the team, which is a 2-game stretch, Thursday and Saturday, but they do have one more game on Sunday and there is a chance that he could be ready for that game.  Concussion protocol is making sure that the symptoms don't come back after exercise, so there's a chance over the next few days for it to clear, but that's not a guarantee.

The Rangers have also noted that Mats Zuccarello also won't be on this trip, as he's still recovering from a groin injury.

Ryan is currently sitting on Namestnikov, who has been less-than-stellar with only 9 points in 24 games and an injury like a concussion could make him sway away from the young Russian.  Zuccarello has 10 points in 17 games, but has been playing hurt, so his numbers aren't what they could have been for John P. this season.

Noon Player Notes (Nov 28)

In case you haven't heard yet, the Toronto Maple Leafs will get Auston Matthews back in the lineup tonight, when they take on the San Jose Sharks at home.  Matthews has missed the last month with a shoulder injury and has been given the green light to return.  The Maple Leafs will definitely be happy to get him back, not to mention a number of players like Frederik Andersen, who will all see improvements in their numbers upon his return, not that the Leafs are in bad shape, still in 3rd place in the Atlantic Division.

One team that really did suffer from this injury was Benson's team.  His team was already slipping up a bit when Matthews was given his 4-week timetable, dropping down to 4th place back at the end of October and has fallen much further, down at 21st after Tuesday night's schedule.  Matthews has 16 points in 11 games this season and will be looking to get right back after it.

The Bruins have recalled rookie forward Ryan Donato on Wednesday night after a month of being down in the AHL and he could be reinserted back into the Bruins' lineup on Thursday night, when the team hosts the Islanders. Donato was off to a slow start in his NHL season, 1 goal in 11 games, but posted 9 points in 10 games in the AHL and has caught the eye of the coaching staff, as their team has struggled for goals outside of the team's top line this season.

Rumour has it that Donato was going to be Clayton's 2nd round drop in the Waiver Draft, but it now has to be somewhat reconsidered, one would have to assume.  Will Clayton's drop come before or after Donato takes the ice and shows off some new found confidence?  We shall see.

Week Nine Waiver Draft (Nov 28)

The official word on yesterday's delay in the Waiver Draft was Wes has a new phone number and I was texting the old number, so the communication just wasn't there on Tuesday in the day and that's why we had to wait.  We are now back to normal working procedures and have been making some head way, between last night and this morning.  Today's recap will cut off at the last pick I received, which has been moving at a brisk pace already this morning.

Once we got to Wes' pick, he began a pretty good run on picking defensemen, by taking Columbus' Ryan Murray to help his underachieving blueline.  Murray has found his game once again in Columbus and has been putting up some decent numbers with this good scoring team, so it looks like a pretty good add there.

Steve went to the surging Buffalo Sabres for his new defenseman, picking up Jake McCabe, who has been getting some pretty good quality ice-time there this season, just over 19 minutes a game.  With the way that the Sabres have been playing this season, including a 10-game winning streak that they are currently on, picking up a body from that team isn't a bad idea at all.

John P. made a double-whammy pick with Maxime Lajoie from the Senators, taking both a defenseman and a rookie, trying to upgrade his blueline and he increased his stake in the rookie mini-game at the same time.  John's team ranks 2nd in the mini-game and adding another player to his side will only put pressure on the leader.

The team that is the rookie mini-game leader belongs to Clayton, but he didn't opt to improve on that, sneaking the returning Shea Weber out of the list, as he played his first game of the season last night for the Montreal Canadiens.  He opened up the season with an assist, but Clayton's team does not get credit for it, as it happened this week and the players we pick are not active until Monday of Week Ten.

Mike nipped the run of defensemen and started a new run of forwards taken in the draft, as we moved higher in the standings and some of the pool leaders started to make those fine improvements up front to get those key points. Mike went to Columbus as well to pick up Nick Foligno, who has been cashing in on some of the high-scoring action with the Jackets.

The move to Edmonton hasn't helped Ryan Spooner's numbers at all, even if it has been a small sample size.  Kristy & Don are not having any more of his lack of offense, so they opted to pick up Cody Eakin in Vegas, which exploded for big numbers last night in Chicago and could be a big hit moving forward.

Grant is enamored with the Vancouver Canucks, it would seem.  He might have to turn in his Calgary Flames fan card after dropping Sven Baertschi of the Canucks and pick up Jake Virtanen... of the Canucks.  Both have some real Calgary connections, but they still play for the green and blue, which is rather suspicious.

The last pick, almost finishing up the opening round in this post, went to Stacey M. and she went to improve her forwards as well, dumping the slumping Mathieu Perreault in Winnipeg and she added Travis Zajac of the Devils.  It's not a major upgrade, but Zajac has been a little bit more consistent and in a top six role in New Jersey.

Morning Player Notes (Nov 28)

The Arizona Coyotes are now getting deep into goalie trouble, as Antti Raanta's lower-body injury flared up again on Tuesday night against the Wild. The keeper didn't return to the ice for the 3rd period after allowing 3 goals on 20 shots and it is beginning to look like the Coyotes may have rushed him back a little too quickly.  With Darcy Kuemper already on the Injured Reserve with his lower-body injury for another couple days (or longer), the net will be left to Adin Hill and Hunter Miska.

It's hard to say whether or not the injury situation to Raanta is going to be enough for Brian to consider a Waiver Draft drop for Raanta, especially considering that some of the top goalie talent has been snapped up already in the opening round.  If the injury is deemed to be serious though, he'll at least have the bonus round to help him out with that.

Prior to Tuesday night's game against the San Jose Sharks, the Buffalo Sabres announced that defenseman Marco Scandella and forward Conor Sheary would be coming out of the lineup and would not play.  Scandella just returned from a lower-body injury on the weekend, but there was no actual mention of an injury here, so it could have been a healthy scratch, just to ease him back into regular game work.  Sheary, on the other hand, suffered an upper-body injury, tweaking something up top, at practice on Monday and was a game-time decision last night, the team opting to sit him.  Both are considered day-to-day.

Scandella belongs to Stacey C. this season and hasn't exactly been performing up to snuff lately and if this does shift into a lower-body injury, he would be then eligible for the bonus round after round two.  Sheary was a Waiver Draft pickup for Jeremy and would be eligible for a drop, if needed, since the injury occurred this week.  The injury doesn't sound too serious, but it's something worth keeping an eye on.

The three goalie system in Carolina continues to rotate around like a carousel, as Scott Darling was the odd-man out and Petr Mrazek was healthy enough to serve as Curtis McElhinney's backup on Tuesday night in Montreal.  The Hurricanes have been fortunate that their roster situation has allowed to keep all three goalies on their roster, as they fear that putting any one of them on the waiver wire to be sent down to the minors would indeed have them plucked off.  This appears like it will continue for a while now.

So, out of the three goalies, the starting goalie was the non-pool goalie, while Darling comes out of the lineup and takes a chance away from Ryan's team last night.  None of it really sounds ideal to stick around in Carolina, as limited starts are not going to help a hockey pool team, especially with three goalies sharing the load.  Ryan's team ranks 23rd in goalie minutes played, but 20th in goalie points.

The flu bug hit the Chicago Blackhawks room this week and a hockey pool casualty was defenseman Henri Jokiharju, who was really feeling under the weather on Monday and was questionable for Tuesday night's game against the Golden Knights, which turned into being unavailable to play and a scratch from the lineup.  He's considered day-to-day and with the way that the Blackhawks defense fell apart against Vegas, they'll want him back quickly.

A second body on the shelf for Brian's team in this post, but his team is still staying afloat this week with 7 points through the first two nights, well clear of the Basement Dweller nod this week.  Brian's team is scheduled to have the most potential games for the rest of the week, so maybe everything will be okay.

The Colorado Avalanche were without defenseman Tyson Barrie on Tuesday night in Nashville, as he was scratched from the lineup with a lower-body injury.  There wasn't a great deal of information regarding the injury, just a note that had said that the team didn't think it was anything long-term.  Barrie will be listed as out day-to-day for right now, which is a positive for the Avalanche, who have enjoyed his scoring rate of 20 points in 23 games this season.

Jesse's team has also enjoyed that scoring rate this year, undoubtedly making Barrie his best defenseman through eight weeks.  His defense group is tied for 12th in the pool for scoring with 38 points, but Barrie making far more progress than the other three.

It was a return to the press box for forward Ty Rattie, who hasn't lived up to the billing of his awesome preseason at all.  The new coaching staff in place in Edmonton wanted some of the blue chip younger talent to have the spots in the top six, which means that Rattie is now finding himself on the outside looking in.  I'm not sure if this means that this is going to be a constant for him, but it's a certain possibility.  Rattie has 2 goals and 4 points in 13 games, way down in the rankings.

For Brenda & Seward, this Waiver Draft isn't going to be enough for them, as the bodies that they have to move are not all injured and the bonus round was to cover injuries.  They could certainly part ways with a number of guys, including Rattie, to help get out of the pool's basement.  If the Rattie news could turn into injury news, that would be a huge help.

And finally, it was a return to the press box for Daniel Sprong in Pittsburgh as well on Tuesday night, as he just hasn't been able to fill any voids this season, like the team hoped he would.  Sprong has been a healthy scratch for most of November and when he draws back in, he hasn't been able to give the team anything.

Sprong will likely be among those players that Jesse will drop this week, having already dropped a player that has been in the minors for several weeks.  With 4 assists in 16 games, he should be strongly considering it anyways.

Goalie Announcements (Nov 27)

Day Two of the Week Nine Waiver Draft is well underway and if you're still looking for a goalie, tonight would be the night that you could do some scouting, if you had NHL Centre Ice or Rogers NHL Live, you could comb the channels and look for your next big acquisition.

10 games on the schedule, not quite as full of current hockey pool goalies as yesterday, but it's still not too bad.

Curtis McElhinney (N/A) versus Carey Price (Stacey M.)
The first game confirmed in the day was the Canes and Canadiens, where we have Stacey looking for her qualifying win from Carey Price and the Habs, as they take on a goalie that is still auditioning for a spot on a hockey pool roster in Curtis McElhinney.  Stacey's team lost a little bit of ground on 2nd place on Monday night, but some help early on from the crease could make up for that in no time.

Martin Jones (Brenda & Seward) versus Carter Hutton (Wes)
Well, the San Jose Sharks got me twice on the weekend, starting Aaron Dell on back-to-back nights, which really didn't pay off for them that well, but nevertheless, an early start in the evening means that there is more reliable info out there and Martin Jones is indeed starting for the Sharks in Buffalo tonight.  On the other side, Wes gets the first of two starts tonight with Carter Hutton, in tough trying to find Wes' qualifying win early on this week.

Mike McKenna (N/A) versus Anthony Stolarz (N/A)
It's a dud game in Philadelphia, as the in-flux Flyers host the Senators tonight.  The Flyers are running through their goaltender options besides their injured top two under new management, while the Senators played last night, so they will be giving Craig Anderson the night off.  Not much to see here, folks... unless you have skaters in this game.

John Gibson (Kristy & Don) versus Louis Domingue (Picked)
The first goalie picked in the Waiver Draft will get to show his stuff off to Eric tonight, but the points won't start counting until next week, sadly.  Nevertheless, Louis Domingue is the new number one in Tampa for the time being and gets the challenge of John Gibson and the Ducks tonight at home, giving the pool's better duo a start tonight.  Kristy & Don want a spot back in the money and their team is moving and shaking early on, trying to get there.

Semyon Varlamov (Wilton) versus Pekka Rinne (John P.)
Heavyweight goalie match-up in the Central Division tonight, when the Avalanche head into Nashville to take on the Predators.  20 points separate the two pool teams in question in this one, Wilton's team, which has Varlamov for the visitors tonight, trails John's team, who will have Rinne going for the home side.  Neither side off to a great start this week, so it will take a slug fest of saves to help get this race going again.

Antti Raanta (Brian) versus Devan Dubnyk (Wes)
The race between Wes and Brian is good and close, Wes in 10th place, only 7 points ahead of his good buddy, Brian, who is back in 15th place at the start of play today.  These two will see their goalies go head-to-head, when the Coyotes and Wild play in Minnesota tonight.  An excellent result from either side could really see a team jump a couple spots in the standings, but I'm sure either side would just be happy with the 2 points.

Casey DeSmith (Picked) versus Connor Hellebuyck (Jeremy)
The second goalie in the draft will also get to show off his wares before he becomes active next week, as Casey DeSmith was taken in the Waiver Draft already, this time by Benson's hockey pool team.  The lowly Penguins will get Connor Hellebuyck tonight, when they take on the Jets in Winnipeg and he'll be donning that blue alternate jersey, which is slowly growing on me.  Jeremy's team is just outside the top 10 today and is 20 points out of the money, hoping that the Jets can really shut down that Pittsburgh offense.

Marc-Andre Fleury (Troy) versus Corey Crawford (Benson)
Our pool leader gets a start tonight as well, as the Vegas Golden Knights will go right back to the Flower tonight, when they go into Chicago and take on Corey Crawford and the Blackhawks.  Benson's team had the pool lead, once upon a time this season, but injuries to one key player seemed to affect his entire team and his team goes into tonight, 58 points back of 1st place.  Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Anton Khudobin (N/A) versus Mikko Koskinen (Picked)
One goalie still available against a goalie already taken in Edmonton later on tonight, when the Stars take on the Oilers.  Tony is banking on Mikko Koskinen to start giving the Oilers some quality goaltending through the middle part of the season and into the stretch run, while there's a pretty good backup still available today in Anton Khudobin, who should get a fair bit of time for the Stars still this season, even when Ben Bishop comes back from injury.

Cal Petersen (N/A) versus Jacob Markstrom (Chelsea)
If you were thinking about possibly taking a Los Angeles goalie that isn't hurt at the moment, you may want to wait and see for the weekend, as it sounds like Jonathan Quick will be ready to go in the next couple of days, just not tonight.  Jacob Markstrom will get the nod for the Canucks at home tonight, trying to help Chelsea's team get on the board this week after a goose egg on Monday night.