Morning Player Notes (Dec 1)

The Los Angeles Kings followed up the report of Ilya Kovalchuk's ankle injury on Saturday morning, one that forced him to miss Friday night's contest in Calgary, saying that it is an infection in his ankle that has flared up and that there is no specific timetable for a return.  The Kings do have him listed as day-to-day, so there's a good chance that some antibiotics should do the trick here.

Derek B. has been dumping his duds for rookies, setting himself up for a run at the mini-game money and now he does have another player to drop, if he so chooses.  Kovalchuk has 14 points in 25 games this season and could be one of the biggest overpaid signings this year.

Ottawa Senators prized rookie defenseman Maxime Lajoie is a game-time decision tonight, he's dealing with an undisclosed injury at the moment and may or may not go this afternoon against the San Jose Sharks.  Not much to report here, really.  Either he goes and we all look past the whole post or he doesn't and hopefully we learn what the actual ailment is, but if it is a game-time decision today, it couldn't be too bad.

John P. did keep some interest in the rookie mini-game in the Week Nine Waiver Draft, picking up the rookie defender in the opening round.  John's team currently sits in 2nd in the mini-game, 14 points back of the leader and needs some help there.  Not quite sure why he dropped Casey Mittlestadt in the 2nd round though.

The St. Louis Blues took a couple of big hits in the injury department on Friday night against the Colorado Avalanche, losing both forward Alexander Steen and defenseman Alex Pietrangelo to upper-body injuries in their 3-2 overtime win.  Steen's injury was only deemed that of the upper-body variety and the coaching staff said that he would be reevaluated today at some point, while Pietrangelo is believed to have suffered hand or wrist injury and also will get a good look by team doctors today.

The Blues are in Arizona tonight, so it seems doubtful that either will be able to play, likely taking away skater games from Stacey C. and Tony, respectfully.  Both players have been only just okay in the scoring ranks this season, which has led to only some mediocre numbers in the standings, 17th and 19th in the standings, respectfully again.  We'll report more, if more comes up later on.