Noon Player Notes in the Draft (Mar 31)

The Florida Panthers may have just seen their sign to pack it in last night.  They were already without their number one goalie, they were also without the services of their number two goalie, James Reimer, and their top forward, Aleksander Barkov, on Thursday night against the Canadiens.  Reimer suffered an upper-body injury, which could be a concussion, and was unable to go.  He'll be listed as day-to-day for the time being, but we'll wait for more info there.  Barkov, he was also sidelined with an upper-body injury and there wasn't much for updates there either.  He'll also be day-to-day for the time being.

Reimer is the bigger news of the two, as we head towards the last week of the regular season, as he belongs to Eric, who finished the night in 3rd place, 7 points behind 2nd and 6 points up on 4th.  The gaps aren't very big and Reimer has been a big component to his recent success.  Barkov, on the other hand, belongs to Stacey M., who sits in 16th, 2 points behind 15th.

The Montreal Canadiens were without defenseman Jordie Benn against the Panthers, as he was dealing with an undisclosed injury, believed to be an upper-body ailment.  Benn has been pretty good, since being acquired by the Canadiens at the deadline, picking up a couple of goals in 13 games and he has been very steady.  The Habs clinched their playoff spot with the win over the hurting Panthers, so they can now afford to rest him up for a little while.

Jeremy's team is now riding out the rest of the regular season, now in 9th place, 41 points out of the money.  He won't be missing Benn right now.

It was thought that Nashville forward Craig Smith found his way up to the press box again as a healthy scratch, but with a little bit of digging, it was found that he suffered an upper-body injury this week and this was why he wasn't able to play on Thursday night against the Maple Leafs.  There was no nature or timetable for his injury, but with Mike Fisher and PA Parenteau returning to the lineup, he was substituted well, just not well enough in the 3-1 loss.

Marcin's team is in the hunt for the Basement Dweller this week, as his team only has 8 points in the week, only 3 points better than the leader in the race.  If he can get Smith back, he would be in much better shape to avoid that infamous title for the week.

The Ottawa Senators were without a couple of very big players on Thursday night, as defenseman Erik Karlsson was out with an undisclosed injury, believed to be a lower-body injury after blocking a shot earlier in the week down low, and forward Alexandre Burrows, who was dealing with an upper-body injury of his own.  Without these two, the Sens dropped a 4-1 decision to the Minnesota Wild, but there is no definitive word on when these two are going to return to the lineup.

The loss of Karlsson is huge news for Dale B., as that is his second-best player on his team with 68 points on the season.  Dale is right in the thick of the big money race, trying to catch Brian and fend off Eric at the same time.  I'm sure he hopes that the injury is minor.  Kristy & Don aren't nearly as fussed with the Burrows injury, they've fallen out of the PIM pool race and aren't likely fussed about the overall race either.

The Tampa Bay Lightning were without their top player on Thursday night with the Red Wings in town, as Nikita Kucherov was given the night off, as he was feeling under the weather.  The Lightning were able to handle the Red Wings in his absence, which was good for them, as they needed the win to stay in the playoff race.  Kucherov is day-to-day, but like most players that have fallen to this flu bug, they have missed more than one game, but it's just so hard to guess and gauge from way over here.

Each of the top three teams in the pool had a key player missing from their lineup last night, which sort of evened out the playing field and it will be a race to get them back, especially if they want to keep their current position or improve it (for some).