Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Mar 23)

That flu bug is really making its rounds these days, a late push, by the look of things.  Nick Foligno of the Blue Jackets succumbed to the bite on Tuesday night, missing out on the game against the Flyers, which allowed Alexander Wennberg to draw back in from being a healthy scratch as well.  The Jackets are home to the Hurricanes on Thursday night and I would assume that Foligno will draw back in for that one.

Cindy's team appears to be safely situated in the top 20 for now, even with the lost game on Tuesday night.  Moving up still appears to be a possibility, but the likelihood of moving up a bunch is still pretty slim.

It has been a rough year for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, already missing out on a fair bit of time this season to injury and there is a good chance he could miss some more after suffering an upper-body injury against the Coyotes last night.  Nugent-Hopkins was hit by Arizona defenseman Connor Murphy in the 2nd period, forcing him from the game and wasn't to return.

The Nuge has been a bust pick for Stacey C. this year, thanks to all that time missed.  Stacey took the centre with his 4th round pick, 94th overall, but with only 33 points to his name, he ranks 222nd after Tuesday night.  His team is 28 points clear of 27th in the standings, which should be enough to keep him out of last place before the season ends.

Things are not sounding very rosy for the Kings and Tanner Pearson, as the reports are saying that he was scratched from Tuesday night's game against the Wild for personal reasons.  There isn't a lot of details here, but he'll be on the list as day-to-day for right now.

Tony's team continues to roll up the standings, now sitting in 16th place, only 3 points behind 15th and 7 points behind 13th, so there is still plenty of movement left to happen for his team in these last few weeks.  If Pearson can get himself sorted, he can come back and join a Kings team that is heating up in time for the playoffs.

A couple of notes from the Senators on Tuesday night, as they faced the Capitals and got thumped, 4-2.  Bruiser Chris Neil was absent from the lineup, due to a bout of the flu, something he just couldn't pummel, unlike some faces in the league this year.  He's day-to-day, but I would expect him back before too long.  The other, Dion Phaneuf left the game against the Caps, as the team cited a lower-body injury for his departure.  The team has called up Fredrik Claesson on Wednesday morning, which suggests that Phaneuf could miss some time.

For Derek & Dan, they secured top spot in the PIM pool over the weekend, not to mention a pretty sizable lead to boot, so they could afford a night off for Neil last night.  They picked up a few minor penalties elsewhere, so it's no big deal.  For Brian, however, losing out on Phaneuf is a bit of big deal in his race for 3rd place (or more).  Phaneuf is his 2nd-best defenseman this season with 32 points, so that is a good hole left behind, if he misses any time.

The Washington Capitals are likely going into preservation mode, as they have clinched their spot in the playoffs, the division and the number one seed in the East.  This means that the rotation will likely be on in a few positions, including that of the blueline, where Nate Schmidt was once again a healthy scratch for the team on Tuesday night.  It hasn't been a regular thing, but he has been up and down from the press box in this third segment.  I would expect it to happen more and more in these last few weeks.

This does cramp the defense of 3rd place for Brian, but the rest of his team is picking up the slack, which is a positive for him.  Even with the loss of Phaneuf and the scratch of Schmidt, Brian's team still kept his challengers at bay and now holds a 6-point gap on John P., heading into Wednesday night.

Lastly this morning, the Winnipeg Jets announced on Tuesday afternoon that defenseman Toby Enstrom won't be returning to their lineup in the last three weeks of the regular season, as he suffered a knee injury that required surgery and his status has been labeled as out indefinitely.  His season was somewhat underwhelming this year, finishing with 2 goals and 16 points in 72 games this year for the Jets.  Certainly could have been stronger and is one of many reasons why the Jets are not making the playoffs this year.

John R.'s quest for the top five in the PIM pool may have taken a little hit, as Enstrom was good for a minor penalty every four games or so.  He doesn't go out and do crazy stuff, but as a defenseman, he's bound to get caught flat-footed once and a while.  John is making waves without him though, something we'll cover later today.

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