Box 22 Blues

Just when you thought it was safe to pick another defenseman in Box 22, the defenseman of choice goes down with injury. Box 22 has been somewhat of a injury plague for these Eastern defensemen and now with Pavel Kubina going down for what could be six weeks, teams who have just picked him up because of the loss of Frank Kaberle are left scratching their heads wondering if they should use another trade to get a healthy player. Kaberle, probably done until the new year now and Kubina will be out until at least mid-November provides even more question marks as to who is going to get you more points down the road. With Braydon Coburn out for a while, Chris Campoli in the same boat and Paul Ranger also injured, it does narrow down who you can choose to pick-up, if you choose to drop (or drop again, in some cases).

There are some talented players in Box 22, one or two, who have been known to put the puck in the net themselves once and a while. Brad Stuart of the Bruins had a 43 point season last year between the Bruins and the Sharks... including 12 goals. Stuart can shoot from the point and probably will see a lot of ice time on the powerplay for Boston. Craig Rivet only scored 7 goals last season, but he did add 27 assists for a reasonable year... a year that he also spent 100+ minutes in the box.

Pavel Kubina was worth 38 points last season with the Lightning... but if he's out for a number of weeks, are you going to be able to recover those points in the long run?


Tonight on TSN, the Flyers are in Montreal to face the Canadiens, one night after defeating the Rangers 4-2. Peter Forsberg has started to pick his game up, while David Aebsicher will try and do his best to keep him from amassing anymore points.

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