Afternoon Player Notes (Dec 26)

Vegas defenseman Colin Miller has missed the last four games and it was confirmed that it is an upper-body injury, which is the culprit for his absence. Previously, the injury was undisclosed, but there was an update online about his injury and what he has meant to the Golden Knights already this season.  There was no indication as to whether or not Miller would be ready outside of the holiday break, we would all have to wait for the pregame skate tomorrow to know more for sure.

Jeremy has the Vegas defender on his team and looking at his overall numbers through 12 weeks, his team hasn't seen a lot of luck among his skaters and his pool team ranks 18th in skater games played with 383, his defensemen making up 131 of those games, which is tied for 13th in the pool.

Boston forward Jake DeBrusk has been out for the last three weeks with a concussion, but has remained on the news page as a day-to-day injury, among the scratches in every game that the Bruins have played in the last three weeks. There was certainly some hope that he would have been able to dress for the team's last game, Sunday in Carolina, but he wasn't able to play and now we wait for Thursday night's contest, at home to New Jersey. If there was hope then, there still has to be hope now.

Stacey M.'s team has fared quite well, despite not having DeBrusk active in her lineup, still ranking 3rd in skater games played with 421, but 10th for forwards at only 270.  Her blueline has really done a lot of heavy lifting in this season, as well as her goaltending.

Another player on the list for a few weeks has been Florida Panthers forward Nick Bjugstad, who has also been dealing with an upper-body injury, but doesn't seem to have much sign of a return quite yet. The coaching staff hasn't been too forthcoming with details on the injury, other than ruling him out of last weekend's action ahead of time.  It really makes one wonder if the concussion bug has bitten him as well, since team really like to tuck the details of those upper-body injuries away.

Brian's team is tied for 11th in total skater games played with 401 and it has seen its fair share of ups and downs from the news page. His forwards are tied for 13th this year with 263 through 12 weeks, which isn't too bad, since 1st in at 291.

The Ottawa Senators had a couple of players listed as out day-to-day, heading into the holiday break, goalie Craig Anderson was dealing with an upper-body injury and rookie defenseman Maxime Lajoie was a healthy scratch in their last game against the Capitals on Saturday.  The Senators play both Friday and Saturday this week and the team hopes that Anderson will get one of those starts, while we're fully expecting to see Lajoie back in the lineup after an extended rest for the holidays.  Both players have been key parts to their limited amount of success and if they want to stay relatively competitive, they'll need to be healthy and playing well.

More importantly, the hockey pool, both Mike and John P. need these two players to remain competitive in the standings.  Mike's team ranks 4th in goalie minutes at 2,844, keeping the theme of the post alive, while John P. hasn't seen the same sort of attendance from his defense, ranking 21st in blueline games at 124 games. 

It seems very likely that Semyon Varlamov will be back in the Avalanche crease when play resumes on Thursday night, since he only missed the team's last game due to a bout of the flu.  The 24th ranked goalie in the pool this season has been keeping Wilton's team within striking distance of the top 10 this season and he could really use a hot streak to keep it going.