Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Feb 3)

It was a bit of a head-scratcher in Brooklyn on Tuesday night, as Thomas Greiss was pushed to the press box as a healthy scratch, as Jean-Francois Berube made his second career NHL start, even ahead of Jaroslav Halak.  Berube earned the win for the Islanders and it really puts a notion of doubt into your head, about what's really going on with the Islanders.

Greiss belongs to Eric and he missed out on him even dressing, while Dale B. didn't record a start in this one, so this move has some impact to it.  Without a clear definition about what's going on here, it's really difficult to speculate.  Does it warrant a gamble this week in the Waiver Draft?  Yikes.

It hasn't been a great year for Rangers blueliner Kevin Klein, as he has been dealing with a number of injuries this year and he suffered another one in the opening game after the break. Klein suffered a broken thumb in the game against the Devils and he is now believed to be out indefinitely.  The thumb is a pretty important digit on the hand and depending on how bad the break is, that will dictate how long he'll be out for.

Dale C. has only managed to pull 10 points from Klein this year, which might have been grounds to drop him this week, as it was, but this injury should put him over the top.  The options may not be that much better, but at least they would be playing.

A pre All-Star break injury to Capitals forward Marcus Johansson has now cost him one game already, post-break.  The upper-body injury was reportedly suffered in the team's last game and it was significant enough to keep him out for another game.  He's currently listed as out day-to-day and I don't think the injury should be considered to be serious, as the team had more than enough time to diagnose and report a major injury by now.

There's a squeaky wheel on Brenda & Seward's team, as they open the week with a player that may cause them some concern.  Johansson has been good for them this season, but their team didn't miss too much of a beat without him, still picking up 11 points on Tuesday night.

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