Sheet Player News (Jan 21)

The Anaheim Ducks are now working with a full compliment of healthy defensemen, but their depth remains questionable on the blueline, especially with scratches like Box 13 blueliner Paul Mara.  Mara has found the press box yet again this season, finding his way up there possibly a few more times than I have posted on the blog.  I do tend to forget that he was added to the team's line-up before the sheet pool was drawn up, so his name is firmly on there, but that doesn't seem to matter for the coaching staff, scratching him every once and a while.

With the return of Box 10 defenseman Kyle Cumiskey to the Avalanche line-up from a concussion, the team had to scratch one of their healthy defensemen and on Thursday night, it was Matt Hunwick who drew the short straw against the Predators.  Of course, with some more talent lost on the offensive side of the puck, the Avalanche couldn't seem to find a way past the Predators goaltending more than once and dropped the decision, 5-1.

The Los Angeles Kings offensive woes of late likely didn't come to matter when the team decided to scratch Box 4 forward Alex Ponikarovsky for the game against the Coyotes or maybe they were taken into consideration and Ponikarovsky was to blame for some of them, making the scratch a little more reasonable.  Well, no matter, there was no official word last night or first thing this morning as to why the Russian forward was out of the line-up, so I'm assuming it's a healthy scratch, with the probability of a lingering injury also keeping him out for a game.

Finally, on Long Island, Box 24 forward Rob Schremp was made into a healthy scratch for the game against the Capitals, which the Islanders stayed relatively close, in a 2-1 loss.  Schremp has been struggling with his scoring of late and the team did get to welcome back Kyle Okposo to their line-up, so they were able to trade up, in terms of overall talent.  I would imagine Schremp will get to draw back in right away, getting a chance to play and score again.

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