Morning Player Notes (Nov 16)

Not only was it Sergei Bobrovsky and Artemi Panarin taking the brunt of the flu bug in the Columbus room, you can also chalk up forward Riley Nash to that list as well, as he joined the two stars in the infirmary with the flu on Thursday night. All three players are considered to be day-to-day right now, nothing too serious.

With the addition of Nash to the list, that meant Benson missed out on a skater game on Thursday night.  Benson picked up Nash in the preseason Waiver Draft, when Filip Zadina was sent down by the Red Wings before the season started.  Unfortunately, he hasn't been as good as advertised in Columbus, with only 2 assists in 18 games.

The flu bug was also taking a bite out of the Minnesota Wild, forcing Zach Parise out of the lineup for Thursday night's game against the Canucks.  The Wild didn't really need Parise, as they handled their guests with relative ease, defeating them, 6-2, but Parise isn't expected to be out of the lineup for very long, given that it is just a bout of the flu.

I'm sure Dale C. would have preferred to have Parise in the lineup for six Wild goals on the night, it could have meant some points and/or more goals in a rout.  Dale could use those points, down in 23rd, through Thursday night's action.

The New York Rangers welcomed back Mats Zuccarello to their lineup after he missed three games with a lower-body injury, believed to be of the groin variety.  With one player coming back in, that meant that one had to come out and that was again Ryan Spooner, heading upstairs to the press box to be a healthy scratch.  Spooner has yet to recreate that early magic he had with the club, after he was traded from Boston at the deadline last year.  In 16 games played, the forward has 1 goal and 2 points.

Kristy & Don are sure ruing the fact that he hasn't scored more, sitting in 4th place, 3 points out of 3rd place and where they could be, if Spooner was just a little bit better.

Whatever lower-body injury is ailing Tomas Hertl of the Sharks has flared up again this week and he was kept out of Thursday night's game against Toronto because of it.  Hertl is considered to be day-to-day, but I would begin to think that if this is a recurring injury, that the Sharks would be taking a little bit more care and caution to it, which may force him to miss a little bit more time.

Brian might not be able to afford too much time on the shelf, but getting one of this top forwards back to 100% may be more ideal, no matter how he gets there.  Hertl has 5 goals and 16 points in 16 games this year, helping Brian's team up to 5th place in the standings, 6 points back of 3rd place.  Hurry up and wait, I guess!