Sheet Player News (Jan 14)

Almost looks like the Buffalo Sabres have come around full-circle on their line-up, as Craig Rivet was the next player to be scratched, joining Chris Butler in the press box on Thursday night. Rivet and Butler have often swapped places through the season, but there was a point where both of them would be sitting at the same time and we've come around to see that again. The Box 28 veteran will likely slot back in when another defenseman gets hurt or draws the coach's ire.

An ankle injury is keeping Oilers' forward Gilbert Brule out of the line-up, as the team is on a short two-game road trip down to California this week. Brule missed out on Thursday night's game against the Sharks and will miss Saturday night's game against the Kings. I would imagine that the Box 5 forward will be looked at again when the team returns, just to get a timetable of his possible return to the line-up.

It appears that Box 4 forward Alex Ponikarovsky was a healthy scratch for the Kings on Thursday night, as they took on the Blues, but the forward did return from a significant period away with an ankle injury this week and I would hazard a guess that he possibly needed to give the healing part some extra rest. Since there is no confirmation of that fact, I will just have him in as a healthy scratch for the time being.

It was a straight swap of regularly scratched forwards for the Flyers on Thursday night, as Nikolai Zherdev went back into the line-up for the Flyers and Daniel Carcillo came out. It has been the same story through the year, either player has not been living up to the measure of expectations of the coach and he gets to sit a game or two, while his press box counterpart gets a chance to redeem himself on the ice. I expect to see Carcillo up there for at least another game, after Zherdev picked up another goal against the Bruins.

It was the return of J-S Giguere to the Maple Leafs bench on Thursday night, as James Reimer took on another start in Phoenix.  Giguere returned from a groin injury and suited up for the club, while Box 32 goalie Jonas Gustavsson took to the press box as a healthy scratch.  Gustavsson has been backing up Reimer in the rookie's string of starts of late, which has lessened the team's need for Giguere, but the veteran's return meant that he got the bench warming position for the night.

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