Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Mar 27)

The Arizona Coyotes managed to spoil the Philadelphia Flyers' plan to easily move through the desert, beating them 2-1, but both of their goal scorers ended up leaving with an injury. Shane Doan left with an upper-body injury after taking a huge hit and Michael Stone got tangled up and suffered a lower-body injury. Neither returned to the game and after the game, the coaching staff suggested that Doan's absence was precautionary, while Stone could be out for a little while. More details to come, I'm sure.

Doan has been an active participant in the PIM pool for Derek & Dan this season, picking up 79 PIM this year, but their lead is enormous at the moment, so they shouldn't have too many worries with two weeks left. Stone was a Waiver Draft pickup for John R. this year and he has been good, picking up 27 points in 48 games and has been John's best player this week. Will be a shame, if he's out long-term.

An injury situation to watch with the Bruins next week, as forward Ryan Spooner left the game with an undisclosed injury and there wasn't much for updates after the game. The Bruins don't play again until Tuesday and unless there are more significant updates, he'll be on the list as out day-to-day.

For John S. this year, Spooner has been pretty decent, picking up 47 points in 75 games this year, it's just a shame for John's team, that you couldn't really say that about a lot of his other players. John's team finished the night in 18th, with the potential for a little bit more movement, before the end of the year.

Erik Gustafsson almost made it to the end of the week without being a healthy scratch, but here he is again, wasn't in the lineup for the game against the Flames on Saturday night, but if all goes to plan, he'll likely dress for the team tonight, when they visit Vancouver. The rotation continues, he'll be in and out for the rest of the year.

Since he also belongs to John S., let's have a quick look at where he stands this week... his 14 points this week are well-below average, which I suppose is why his team is stuck where it is, in the bottom half of the standings. That injury bug really feasted on his team this year.

Penguins forward Chris Kunitz left Saturday afternoon's game against the Red Wings with an upper-body injury, after taking a lateral hit from Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk. Kunitz had to be helped off the ice and there are fears of a head injury, but he was to be re-evaluated before this afternoon's game in New York against the Rangers. An update will likely be provided at game time.

It's another hit for John R.'s team, which was trying really hard to keep moving up the standings, but it's little things like these injuries that kept his side down. His team is 22 points up on last place, so there is a level of personal pride accomplished, but his team is only 11 points up on 26th, which is still a possibility.

An unfortunate accident, colliding with a teammate on the ice, has cost rookie forward Joonas Donskoi at least Saturday afternoon's game against the Dallas Stars, but that may all it will be.  The Sharks are not going to disclose what kind of injury that the freshman has, but there is likely a little bit of silver lining here, as the youngster will also get a little bit of much-needed rest before the playoffs start in a couple weeks.

Donskoi has a huge plus for Mike's Mover & Shaker nod last week, but he has dried up again this week, which is dropping Mike's team into the Basement Dweller consideration, heading into the last three games of the week on Sunday.  Mike's team has a trio of games today, but needs to make up 3 points to catch Troy to move out of the basement.

After posting three straight shutouts, the St. Louis Blues opted to give a "holiday" to goaltender Brian Elliott on Saturday, making him into a healthy scratch and dressing the team's third goalie, Anders Nilsson, while Jake Allen got the start (and the shutout) against the Capitals.  The Blues are working their way into another goalie conundrum, something that cost the team dearly last season, around the playoffs, and it looks like it could rear its ugly head again.

So, Grant's goalie got the night off, Cindy's goalie was the back-up and Scott's goalie ended up with 4 points last night.  Scott desperately needed those points, since he is still kind of in the money talk, but falling further behind this week, with only 14 points.  Oh, and Grant's team... yeah, it's still in 25th.

Finally, a lower-body issue was to blame for Nikita Kucherov's absence in the Lightning lineup on Saturday evening.  The Bolts had to make a couple of recalls, making sure that Kucherov's and Anton Stralman's spots were adequately taken care of, as they continue to fight for a playoff berth down the stretch.  Tampa suffered a 5-2 loss without two key pieces of their puzzle, but it sounds like Kucherov is only day-to-day, so they're hoping for a quick return.

Ryan really could have used Kucherov on Saturday, it would help his team in the tie-breaking ability with Kristy & Don for the Mover & Shaker this week.  His team is only 15 points out of the money after this good week, but he'll need the sneaky little Russian back and scoring, if he wants to make up that gap in two weeks.

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