Morning Player Notes (Dec 15)

On Thursday, the Philadelphia Flyers granted goaltender Michal Neuvirth a leave of absence to be with his wife for the birth of their child and in doing that, he wasn't available for Friday night's game in Edmonton and it sounds like he could be doubtful for Saturday night's game in Vancouver as well.  He was moved to a non-roster spot for the leave of absence, but there are no restrictions on it and he'll be eligible to return to the lineup, when he rejoins the team.

Lots of confusion on Friday, when the media tried to dissect the comments left behind by the Vegas coaching staff, when they were asking about the lineup they'd play against the Devils last night.  In the end, Max Pacioretty wasn't the healthy scratch many media outlets were assuming, rather there is an injury that kept him out of the game, but the nature of that injury was still to be disclosed, but the team considers it a minor injury.  So, for whatever that is worth, the veteran forward is day-to-day, unclear if he'll be ready to go for Sunday afternoon's tilt against the Rangers.

That's a couple of games that Stuart's team missed out on last night and his team hasn't been able to keep pace with Troy's side this week, dropping the overall lead and losing ground on the race, as he opens up Saturday down by 5 points.  Neuvirth should return soon and will probably get some time in the crease before too long, but we just don't know what's going to happen with Pacioretty just yet.

Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang left Friday night's game against the Boston Bruins with an injury and didn't return to the game, but there were no visible signs of injury, as he left the arena, according to some reports.  The coaching staff were very coy, when it comes to the injury prone defender's health moving forward, not giving much in the way of any details or reasons for his early departure, so it's one we'll have to keep an eye on for now.  The Penguins host the Kings tonight, so it will be a matter of whether or not he suits up for the game and if he doesn't, we'll list him as day-to-day, until otherwise noted.

Jeremy's 16th place team can ill-afford to be without Letang, since he has been one of his more solid contributors this season, 25 points in 30 games.  Letang is 5th on his team in points this year, tops among his defensemen, and Jeremy has very little room for error, before his side can drop another couple spots in the blink of an eye.