Draft Player Scratches (Jan 26)

The Blackhawks were without Marian Hossa on Tuesday night against the Wild, thanks to a bout of the flu.  Hossa ended up getting an early start to his All-Star break, since that was the last game the Blackhawks had this week before everyone split off for a few days.  The Blackhawks do not play for another week, opening up their post-break schedule against the Blue Jackets next Tuesday, February 1st.  Hossa is not scheduled to participate in the All-Star festivities this year, so he'll likely get the rest he needs.

I'm not sure how Allan S. felt about one of his players taking the night off, as he protects his lead in the draft.  All three teams chasing Allan down in the pool made up some points on our leader on Tuesday night, taking his lead down to 5 points.

The Maple Leafs have seemingly decided to go with three goaltenders for the time being on the weekend, as they found it hard to live without rookie goaltender, James Reimer.  Jonas Gustavsson returned to the Maple Leafs bench as Reimer's back-up on Tuesday night against the Lightning and J-S Giguere was made into a healthy scratch, thus giving the more veteran of the three goalies an extra night to his All-Star break, which has now begun in Toronto.

There is plenty of speculation about what the management team will do with the three goalies after the All-Star break, including such bold suggestions as shopping Giguere around to help build the team up and also sending Gustavsson down to the minors for a conditioning stint.  All of which makes sense in one way or another, so more eyes focus down on Toronto, as we get closer and closer to the trade deadline.

With Giguere out of the line-up for another game on Tuesday night, that meant Jani K. was missing out on some potential points in this short, short week.  Jani finished Tuesday with only 3 points to his name in Week Seventeen, keeping himself in the race for the Basement Dweller.  He has plenty of room to fall, as below his 14th spot in the standings, there are a few teams within one night's striking range.  The silver lining in that is that the waiver draft order will be decided after Wednesday night's games, so if he drops any further, his pick will improve.

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