Sheet Player News (Dec 19)

Before Saturday night's game against the Hurricanes, the Ducks decided to send Dan Sexton back down to the minors, because of the pending return of Teemu Selanne to the line-up. Sexton has been playing as the extra man in the Ducks line-up over the past couple weeks, with Selanne nursing a recurring groin injury.  Sexton, a Box 8 forward in the pool, is the first call-up among forwards for the team, so there's a good chance he'll return before too long.

The Ducks also scratched Box 12 defenseman Andy Sutton for the game against the Hurricanes, since Sutton has not been playing his best hockey of late. Sutton hasn't seen the scoresheet in the four games before Saturday night and his number of shifts have been cut back dramatically, to signal that he is part of the 5-6 pairing when he is in the line-up and working his way into the number seven position.

The Wild were without Box 11 defenseman Cam Barker on Saturday night for their game against the Flames because of having to take care of some personal business away from the rink. Really, there isn't any more explanation needed for this sort of thing, but there isn't any word on when he will return to the team for another game.

Box 12 defenseman Cody Franson is also attending to some family business this weekend and he is unavailable for the Predators. Franson missed both Friday night's game against the Devils and Saturday night's game against the Devils, but is expected to be back to the team in time for their next game, which goes on Wednesday in Chicago.

After making his NHL debut on Saturday night, Mark Dekanich was sent back down to the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL, just before the holiday roster freeze came into effect. It sounds like Pekka Rinne is getting close to being ready to go again for the Predators, as he was travelling with the team over the weekend. This actually puts Rinne back in the Predators line-up, well ahead of schedule.  With Anders Lindback doing well, I'm kind of surprised if the Predators are trying to rush Rinne back.

After some pretty poor efforts, in the eyes of the coaching staff, this week, Nazem Kadri earned a healthy scratch nod for the Maple Leafs, as they took on the Canucks in Vancouver on Saturday night.  It's really been a love/hate relationship between player and coach in Toronto, but since he wasn't sent down before the roster freeze, he should make a couple more appearances for the Leafs before too long.

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