Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Jan 12)

After a crushing and suspendable hit from Edmonton's Matt Hendricks, Florida Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad is reportedly now going through the league's concussion protocol, in order to return to the lineup, as soon as possible.  Hendricks was suspended for three games for his hit and Ekblad will be missing some time, including Monday night's game against the Canucks.  Ekblad will have to sit out at least a week, but the team seems to feel that he will need the minimum on the shelf and list him as out day-to-day.

Derek W. still moved up a position on Monday night, after a 3-point night without Ekblad, so things are not all bad through the opening night of the week.  Derek moved up to 7th place, but still 23 points out of the money.

The New York Rangers have been cycling through a few roster spots in need of some healthy scratches in the last few weeks and on Monday night against the Boston Bruins, it became Oscar Lindberg's turn to have a turn up in the press box, as he was made into a healthy scratch.  The Swedish rookie has been good this season, but has hit a little bit of a cold spell of late, something the coaching staff is trying to address with this move.  I would think that the move is temporary and that Lindberg would be back in before too long.

You can just add another unlucky notch in Mike's belt this season, as his pool team may have been born under a bad sign.  Since the Waiver Draft, when he picked up Lindberg, he has only collected 1 goal and 1 assist in 12 games, so you can understand why the scratch has happened.

The Rangers also suffered another injury on Monday night, upon the return of forward Chris Kreider from a lacerated hand, defenseman Dan Girardi left the game against the Bruins with the same ailment, thought to have been suffered after blocking a shot with his hand in the 2nd period.  Girardi had to leave the game, not to return, and his status is considered to be day-to-day for the time being.  Kreider missed a few games with the ailment, trying to avoid infection in the laceration from his hockey gloves.

Allan's team was one of four pool teams that failed to pick up a point on Monday night, but still sits in 16th place in the standings, but quickly tailed by a couple teams that made up some ground on his side.  Girardi was also a Waiver Draft pick-up, having only 2 assists in nine games since being acquired.

Finally, it was seemingly only a matter of time before the goaltending situation got healthy again in Toronto and now that Garret Sparks has recovered from his own lower-body injury, he was loaned back to the Marlies of the AHL on Monday, thus ending his run with the big club, leaving Jonathan Bernier and James Reimer to continue what they started at the beginning of the season.  With the health of the Leafs goalies being a major concern this year, it may not be long before something happens again and Sparks is back up with the club.

Nevertheless, it was a bit of a long shot for Ryan to gamble on a 3rd string goalie, even if it was for the Leafs, as this was sort of bound to happen, unless Sparks went on a huge run.  His run wasn't exactly huge and the lower-body injury curbed whatever run he was on, leaving the decision to send him back to the minors as a no-brainer.  Is there another rookie goalie out there for Ryan to take?