Morning Notes in the Draft (Nov 1)

A couple days worth of notes to take care of this morning, was relocating Opiated Sherpa Productions, yet again, over the weekend.  So, let's get right to it.

Hurricanes forward Elias Lindholm left Friday night's game with a lower-body injury, during Friday night's game against the Avalanche. Lindholm went through a battery of tests, the X-rays appeared to be clean, but he is still listed as doubtful for Sunday's game against Carolina. I would assume, from what I've read so far, that he'll be day-to-day for right now.

It hasn't exactly been the greatest of starts for the young Swedish forward, as he has only picked up 1 goal and 2 PIM in the first 11 games of the season.  I would imagine that this injury could act as a good learning tool from the press box, as an unhealthy scratch.

That's not exactly what Brian wants to see in his players though, as his team has jumped into the money, now 3rd place, 9 points back of 1st.

There were few notes from Blackhawks camp this weekend, all relating to the hockey pool.  At the start of Friday night's game in Minnesota, both forward Viktor Tikhonov and defenseman David Rundlbad were scratches from the game, both have been healthy scratches already this season and they had found their way back up to the press box for the game against the Wild, consider them day-to-day.  In the game itself, Marian Hossa left the game with a lower-body injury.  After the game, the injury was said to be nothing serious and if he is going to miss any time, he will be listed as day-to-day.

I suppose it sounded a little bit more serious than it actually was, but three teams are continuing to be on the look out for missed skater games, as it was Grant, Eric and Derek & Dan, respectively, who earned nods in the notes here this morning.

It looks like the strong training camp that Brad Boyes had for the Maple Leafs only had a honeymoon of a few weeks, as the veteran winger spent the last two games, Friday in New York and Saturday at home to the Penguins, in the press box as a healthy scratch.  Of course, the Leafs only scored one goal in those two games, so taking out a scoring winger wasn't really going to help that situation much.  If Boyes continues to be absent from the lineup, then there might be something major going on there, one would think.

In eight games this year, Boyes has 4 assists and 6 PIM for Benson in the pool, not exactly great numbers, but still understandable, given the team that he's on.  It's unlikely that Boyes will be able to show off his wares to other NHL teams from the press box, if a trade is necessary to get him ice-time.

The Blue Jackets played a pair of games over the last two nights, Friday in Washington and Saturday, home to the Jets, and Brandon Saad missed Friday's game to a bit of a flu bug, but was okay to come back and score a goal in the 3-2 loss on Saturday.  This note is certainly more for the one game that he missed, but he did return, so there shouldn't be much worry here.

Saad hasn't exactly turned in a huge effort with the Jackets early on this season, as he only has 4 goals and 1 assist in his first 11 games with the club, also picking up 4 PIM for the other pool.  Ryan, who got off to a screaming start to the year, has since dropped off to 12th, but just needs those players who rocketed him up to get going again.

Kings defenseman Christian Ehrhoff left Saturday afternoon's game against Nashville, after taking a hit from behind from Predators forward Mike Ribeiro. Ehrhoff's immediate status was only day-to-day with an upper-body injury, but I'm sure we'll see more about the injury before too long.  Ehrhoff has missed some significant time over the last few years, so this isn't the sort of thing that his career needs at all.

In 10 games this season, Ehrhoff has picked up 3 assists and 6 PIM for Stuart, which has helped his team up to 10th in the standings, now 17 points out of 1st place.  Ehrhoff hasn't been a leading contributor or anything, but he has chipped in a little, which will certainly go missing if he's out long-term.

An upper-body injury has sidelined veteran forward Jiri Tlusty, as he missed out on Saturday afternoon's game between the Devils and the Islanders.  There isn't a great deal for details on this injury, so we're only assuming that he's out day-to-day for the time being.  Until the Devils can update us a little bit further, possibly before Tuesday's return visit to Brooklyn, I would imagine we'll hear something about it.

The returning champs are hanging around in 15th spot in the standings, as Kristy & Don's team are now 23 points back of 1st place, but nowhere near out of it right now.  Tlusty has picked up 3 points in the first 10 games this year, so he still has some room for improvement, when he's healthy again.

The flu has just ravaged the New York Islanders dressing room this week(end), as it started with Ryan Strome and Jaroslav Halak, both of which played on Saturday, while their number one guy, John Tavares, missed Saturday's game against the Devils with an illness and his status for Sunday's game against the Sabres is still up in the air. Fortunately for Tavares, it is a later game this evening, so he will have a little extra recovery time, if needed, to jump back in tonight.

Tavares has been both a scorer and a bit of a goon to start the year, picking up 11 points and 18 PIM in his first 10 games this season, helping Eric immensely in the both pools.  Sure, Eric might only be 18th overall in the big pool, but he's in the hunt for the PIM pool, trying to get his money back.

It was thought that the leg injury that Vladimir Tarasenko suffered earlier in the week against Anaheim wouldn't be much of anything, especially since he returned to the game and finished it off.  The fight in him wore off eventually, as he wasn't able to practice on Friday or Saturday and ended up missing Saturday night's game against the Wild with the injury.  It isn't considered to be a serious injury, but he's currently on the list as out day-to-day.

His status for Tuesday's home date against the Kings will still be up in the air, but Tony is sure hopeful that he can come back and add to his good totals this season.  In 10 games, Tarasenko has 6 goals and 4 assists, plus 8 PIM, just having him outside of the 1st round selections in pool scoring.

It looks like defenseman Matt Carle was a healthy scratch for the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night, as they Bolts took on the Bruins in a 3-1 loss.  Without any points this year, Carle's all around game has obviously been questioned by the coaching staff and they could use a little bit more at the offensive end from him.  Still, they probably could have used his steady defense last night, since no one was able to score for them last night.  I would expect that he suits up again tonight, when Tampa visits the Hurricanes in Carolina.

If Carle is good for one thing for Wes, it was PIM, to which the veteran defender already has 10 PIM.  Wes could also use more points from the blueliner, as his team sits down in 22nd place, 36 points back of 1st place and nearing the line, where the Waiver Draft may be more about getting his money back than winning the big pot.

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