Saturday's Expected Returns (Nov. 12)

The Columbus Blue Jackets have some positive news going into Saturday night's game against the Winnipeg Jets, as they will welcome their biggest off-season acquisition back into the line-up, as Jeff Carter has finally been activated from the injured reserve, after suffering a broken foot in the middle of October.  Carter has been out nearly a month with the injury, halting what was a very reasonable start to his first season with the Blue Jackets.

In his first five games this year, Carter has posted 3 assists.

This was a very significant injury to Munden G.'s draft team, which at the time of the injury, was sitting pretty in 5th place, only 16 points out of 1st place.  Going into Saturday's action, Munden has since dropped down to 19th, now 49 points out of 1st place, which really cannot be hung completely on Carter, sure you might be able to save 10-15 of those points, but it still hurts nonetheless.  If Carter was in the line-up for the Jackets, you could argue that Rick Nash, also on Munden's team, would have seen some better returns as well.

The Habs are one of the most banged up teams in the NHL, but that is looking to get better right away, as Scott Gomez will make his triumphant return to the line-up, after dealing with an upper-body injury, which took much longer than the week it was initially thought to have healed.  Gomez has been out for about three weeks with the injury and the Montreal offense hasn't been very good in his absence, not to say it was that great when he was healthy.

In Gomez's first six games this year, he had only posted 1 assist, which was pretty poor.  His return couldn't hurt the club, who has been dealing with some AHL talent down the middle and they have been mired below the playoff cut-off line.

At the time of the injury, Wes M. was sitting in 14th spot in the standings, 10 points out of 3rd place, back when the race was still developing.  Upon his return, Wes is now 16th, 34 points out of 3rd place, but Gomez was only one of four major injuries in Wes' roster, two of which have yet to make appearances in the league this year.  We cannot peg this all on Gomez, but even a few more points would have made a difference, possibly keeping him in 14th?