Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Apr 2)

There are a few notes to be had for the Blackhawks, one will come after this post as well.  Before the game, forward Marian Hossa was decided to be a scratch, due to that bug that keeps going around.  He was not able to play against the Jets, but he's only considered to be day-to-day and should be questionable, at the very worst, for Sunday afternoon's game against Boston.

Also, in that game against the Jets, forward Andrew Shaw left the game, not to return, with an upper-body injury.  The post-game scrum suggested that Shaw's injury isn't considered too serious, but there wouldn't be any surprise here, if the Blackhawks held him out for a game or two, just for precautionary measures.

Hossa belongs to Derek & Dan this season and it looks like their team has stalled in the overall standings, where Hossa was only helping, while Shaw belongs to Dale B., whose team could really only move up to 13th, with a good last stretch of the year.  Both players should be back to scrape up whatever they can for their respective pool teams.

I think one healthy scratch that has been missed from time-to-time on the blog has been Brendan Smith of the Red Wings.  He doesn't get scratched every game, but he has been one of those bubble players that the coach just can't seem to find a whole lot of faith in.  On Friday, Smith was in the press box again for the game against the Wild and with Detroit on the playoff bubble, the coaching staff is going to need to find those players he can count on for that extra push.  It's hard to say if Smith will be one of those guys in the last week of the season.

Eric picked up Smith in the last Waiver Draft and he hasn't exactly produced for his team, only picking up 3 assists in 19 appearances.  He does have 19 PIM in that same time, but that isn't really helping Eric's cause too much.  His team is still in the mix though, still leading the Mover & Shaker race and eyeing up that 3rd place money.

With the playoffs just around the corner, it should come as no surprise that the President's Trophy winning team, the Washington Capitals, would want their best players ready for the Spring Dance in a couple of weeks. Nicklas Backstrom, their number one centre, is dealing with a bit of an upper-body injury, so they rested him against the Avalanche on Friday, just for precautionary reasons. He's day-to-day and should figure into one more game this year, at the very least.

There isn't much left there for Troy in this regular season.  A top 20 finish is now 9 points away and his team continues to get banged up and sat for a night or two, if not more.  The odds of a good 1st round pick next year looks fairly solid though.

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