Morning Player Notes (Dec 23)

The Hurricanes hosted the Penguins on Saturday night and this was Jordan Staal's second game after returning from a concussion and in this one, he ended having to leave again, due to an upper-body injury.  It hasn't been confirmed, whether or not it is related to the previous concussion or not, but it certainly isn't a good sign.  The Hurricanes play again on Sunday and likely won't have the centre at their disposal for the game.  We'll be keeping a close eye on this one, for sure.

Definitely some bad news for Troy's team, which continues to hold strong in the money race through Saturday's action, currently sitting in 3rd place, but is only 3 points clear of 5th, so any kind of injury or slip up could see his team out in a hurry.

The Colorado Avalanche had to make a late recall for their crease on Saturday, as Semyon Varlamov was under the weather and unable to dress for the game against the Coyotes and it looks like they could have used him in this one.  The dogs shelled the Avs, going through both Philipp Grubauer and their recall Pavel Francouz to a 6-4 victory and now they're heading into the break on somewhat of a down note.  I would fully expect Varlamov to be ready for Thursday night in Vegas, so there shouldn't be anything to worry about.

I would consider this one to be a missed start for Wilton, which is a shame.  Throwing Grubauer in on back-to-backs on a late scratch certainly didn't help the team's ability to compete.  Wilton's team could have used the points, as a busy Sunday coming up, his team is only 2 points clear of the Basement Dweller.

Andreas Athanasiou of the Detroit Red Wings was a game-time decision for the team before their match against the Florida Panthers, as he suffered an upper-body injury earlier in the week.  He was able to take warm-ups for the game, but took himself out late on, so he's considered a reasonable day-to-day for right now.

That didn't help Jesse's team at all, as it couldn't keep up with the rest of the pack on Saturday, falling down to that Basement Dweller position, ahead of Sunday's action.  The Red Wings do play again on Sunday, in Toronto, so it will be interesting to see if he can help recover Jesse's team from possibly making its first appearance in the infamous spot tomorrow morning.

Ottawa Senators goalie Craig Anderson was not healthy enough to even backup on Saturday night, at home to Washington, so the team had to do a quick emergency recall of goalie Marcus Hogberg for the game. Anderson is reportedly dealing with a minor upper-body injury and he ended up with an extra day off before the holiday break to take care of it He's considered to be day-to-day and it would seem likely that he would return for Friday's game in Brooklyn.

It also appears that rookie defenseman Maxime Lajoie was a healthy scratch for the Senators on the night as well, missing out on learning the defensive ropes against a very excellent offense like the Capitals.  He may have needed a break as well, as the long grind of the NHL season can take a toll on a rookie.

So, it wasn't necessarily a missed start for Anderson and Mike's pool team, the second half of back-to-backs probably meant he wasn't going to start anyways and the added rest of not dressing might help in the long run too.  John P., on the other hand, did miss out on a possible skater game and it's hard to say that would have meant anything, since the Caps shutout the Sens, 4-0.