Player Notes in the Draft (Feb 5)

It is expected that we'll see the return of Pekka Rinne to the Nashville crease tonight, as the Predators host the Ducks, in a Western Conference leaders clash.  Rinne has been out since the middle of January with a lower-body injury, which was to keep him out anywhere between 3-to-5 weeks and we've now hit the 3-week mark, pretty well on the nose from his second opinion, so it's about right.

Rinne was not missed by Kristy & Don in his absence, because in the last three weeks, their lead has only increased by leaps and bounds, so this only makes things worse for the rest of the pool and their slimmest of false hopes of catching them for 1st place.

In other goaltending news, the conditioning stint for Jonas Gustavsson has concluded and the Red Wings have called up their usual back-up goalie to do his job for Petr Mrazek tonight, as Detroit laces them up against the Avalanche in Denver tonight.  Gustavsson has been out since November and took a little bit longer than initially expected, but with Mrazek playing so well of late and Jimmy Howard not far from returning either, it remains to be seen how useful Gustavsson will be to the Wings.

This news is little help to Tony, who has decided to make the drop of Gustavsson, starting next week,  If Mrazek somehow gets pulled tonight, Tony might get a few more minutes added to his totals, but that seems somewhat optimistic, at best.

Nine games in the NHL tonight, so it's kind of busy.  Not too bad, though.  It has been a good week for blog posts, so let's keep that up, shall we?

First, the survivor pool, it moves on for another week.  Both pool duos have their wins already this week, so there isn't much to say there.  Kristy & Don will have both of their goalies going head-to-head, by the look of things, so even if they didn't have their win, Pekka Rinne or Frederik Andersen would get a win in their game.

For the Mover & Shaker, Cam is our leader again for the week and he doesn't have either goalie going tonight, but Stacey C. will have Braden Holtby going, so the chase is definitely on.

There are not very many notable pool starts, meaning anything out of the ordinary, as most of the healthy starters will take their spot in the crease.  Robin Lehner will go in place of the injured Craig Anderson for Ottawa, but that looks to be about it, as of 10am MT.

Allan, Benson, Grant S. and Kristy & Don are the only teams tonight to have both their goalies starting, as per the projections.

Only one non, but soon-to-be pool goalie going tonight, as Mrazek was noted above to be getting the start for the Red Wings.  He'll be Scott's second goalie starting on Monday.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.