Sunday, January 10, 2010

Weekend Sheet Scratches

A lower-body injury kept Kris Russell out of the Blue Jackets line-up against the Stars on Sunday night. The injury is considered to be rather minor and it wouldn't surprise team officials if he was ready to go for the team's next game on Tuesday night.

It appears that Matt Niskanen has displeased the Stars coaching staff and he has the numbers to back up their displeasure. Niskanen was a -4 in the last four games he played in and hasn't registered a point in quite some time, so up to the press box he went on Sunday night. The Box 10 defenseman likely needed this kick in the pants to get his game in gear again.

An interesting line-up change for the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night, as the coaching staff preferred to have non-pool player, Robbie Earl in their line-up instead of Box 4 forward, Petr Sykora. Earl was brought in to the line-up for energy purposes, which seemed to help, as the Wild beat Chicago in the shootout last night.

It appears that Joel Ward is being held out the Predators' line-up on Saturday night against the Ducks, because of a lower-body injury. Ward is having an alright year, with 22 points in 41 games this year, so his absence from the line-up is rather notable. According to his numbers in the week, it looks like Ward was injured late in the 3rd period against the Flames earlier in the week.

Sami Salo was held out of the Canucks line-up against the Flames on Saturday night, becuase he suffered a swollen eye in team's game earlier in the week against the Coyotes. Salo took a stick in the face, clipping him around the eye area and it swelled up significantly. It sounds like Saturday's game will be the only one that he'll miss and should be back in the line-up this week.

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