Morning Player Notes (Dec 27)

The New Jersey Devils will open up their post-holiday schedule with a game in Boston tonight and they will be without Taylor Hall, due to a mysterious lower-body injury, one that kept him out of a couple of games before the break as well.  The team has not opened up about the injury, but he's currently out day-to-day and there is no indication as to whether or not he'll be ready to play again Saturday or any time, for that matter.

It doesn't look like Santa was very nice to Mike's pool team over the holiday, taking down his 1st round pick for an undetermined amount of time.  The 17th overall selection is the lynch pin of his roster, with 37 points in 33 games, and the assault on the top five may have hit a serious speed bump today, if this injury lingers.  Mike's team opens up Thursday's action in 6th, 14 points behind 5th.

The Ottawa Senators confirmed this morning that the upper-body injury that is ailing goaltender Craig Anderson is a concussion and they have already ruled him out of this weekend's back-to-back games, recalling Marcus Hogberg to act as backup and possibly even get a start.  Yesterday, we were questioning the availability of the veteran netminder and his ability to play this weekend, but the Senators were quick on the draw on Thursday morning, getting ahead of the curve and making the announcement.  There's no word on any time on the IR, so we'll wait for more details.

Even more bad news for Mike's team... it must have been very naughty this year to get this kind of treatment around the holidays.  Anderson was carrying the mail in the crease for Mike's team this season, so two big losses to start the post-holiday break is a real bummer, especially for a team in the race.