More Player Notes in the Draft & Playoffs (Apr 7)

In somewhat of a surprise announcement on Tuesday morning, as the Chicago Blackhawks have shut down forward Brad Richards for the last three regular season games, due to an undisclosed injury. The injury is speculated to be an upper-body injury, but the nature of it wasn't exactly speculated upon. The team does sound rather confident that Richards will be ready for the playoffs though.

Bad news for Clayton, who lost ground to Wes on Monday night and likely needs all the help he can get to get into the money.  His projected games have now been taken off the list and now Clayton only has three more games than Wes this week, with only five nights left to play.

Nine games on the last Tuesday of the regular season, the playoffs will start in one week from today.  Only five nights left in the season and the races will remain our focus on the post today, as that's all that is left this year.

For 3rd place, Wes opened up a few more points on Clayton, as the gap now sits at 9 points with a big night on the go.  Benson managed to keep pace with Wes, but still is 11 points back, while Scott is 13 points back and still within miracle range.

For Wes, Arizona is going, which means that Mike Smith is likely getting the nod, as they will try to play spoiler for the Flames tonight.  Clayton will only have one start as well, as Marc-Andre Fleury and the Penguins go into Ottawa for a date against the Sens.  Benson will have one kick at the crease tonight, as Semyon Varlamov is tapped to go up against the Predators for the Avalanche tonight.  As for Scott, his only shot was in Detroit and the Red Wings have opted for Jimmy Howard, instead of Petr Mrazek, so he's out of luck.

Can Wyllie make it out of the basement this week?  The Islanders will play tonight, but they have opted to go with Jaroslav Halak, instead of Michal Neuvirth, since Long Island could use this game to punch their ticket to the post-season.  Allan will likely have Steve Mason going for those same Flyers, but if Neuvirth went, it would have made for an excellent match-up in this race.  Allan goes into tonight with a 10-point lead.  Ryan, now 14 points clear of Olli, is again without a goalie for the evening.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.