Friday, November 13, 2009

Thursday Night Scratches

The Stars saw the return of James Neal to the line-up on Thursday night against the Sharks, but had to trade off with Fabian Brunnstrom and Jere Lehtinen, who both hit the shelf with injuries. Brunnstrom suffered a shoulder injury in practice on Tuesday and he is currently considered day-to-day, while Lehtinen has re-aggravated his groin injury, which kept him out of the line-up already this year. Lehtinen is also considered day-to-day, but I would have to imagine that the team wouldn't rush him back too quickly, especially if he's going to have recurring problems with it.

Chris Osgood missed a scheduled start last night versus Vancouver, due to a bout of the flu. His status for Saturday night's game, home to Anaheim, is still unclear, but Jimmy Howard has played well in his place, so the Red Wings are not concerned about leaving him in net for one more start. The Wings will likely be cautious with Osgood, also not rushing him back to the line-up too soon.

The Blues have decided to keep Alex Pietrangelo with the big squad for the rest of the season, but whether or not he plays is a completely different story. On Thursday night, he was a healthy scratch again, watching the game versus the Predators from the press box. This is really lowering his fantasy value, to almost zero. In a keeper pool, yeah, he makes a lot of sense, because he is still growing into the NHL game. Hard to bet on him now though.

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