Morning Player Notes (Dec 5)

Robin Lehner was held out of the lineup for the New York Islanders on Tuesday night, unlikely that he was going to be making the start anyways, but he still wasn't healthy enough to back-up Thomas Greiss against the Jets.  The Islanders coaching staff said that the keeper had tweaked something, but they wouldn't go into detail about what.  Usually, a tweak for a goalie is something along the lines of being in the groin area, but since it wasn't necessarily confirmed, we won't say it officially either.  He's considered day-to-day for right now.

Again, I wouldn't consider this a missed start for Chelsea's team, since Greiss has been carrying the load for the Islanders for the better part of the season already.  The team doesn't have any impending back-to-back situations this week, so it's hard to say whether or not Lehner will draw back in any time, even if he is healthy.  We shall see, I guess.

The Vancouver Canucks are still struggling to piece together wins and the trade the other day to acquire Josh Leivo had at least given the coaching staff an opportunity to rest some struggling scorers, like Nikolay Goldobin, who was a healthy scratch against the Minnesota Wild, just for that reason.  The coaches wanted a reset for him and I would expect to see him back in the lineup again on Thursday with Nashville in town.

This isn't what Scott had in mind, when he picked up the Russian winger in the Waiver Draft, but it is more like a delayed debut, more than missing some extended periods of time.  Scott's team increased its lead over last place to 10 points, so his team is free and clear.

It sounds like Max Pacioretty was under the weather on Tuesday night and he was unable to play in the 5-3 win over the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night. The rematch of the Cup Finals was quite the show and maybe could have used a few more scoring fireworks in the game to make it more exciting, but we have to be okay with what we got. Pacioretty is day-to-day right now and I would consider him probable for Thursday night's home game against the Blackhawks.

Stuart's team isn't off to a blazing start this week, only picking up 7 points through two nights and dropping back down to 2nd place for the time being.  He would have preferred Pacioretty to be in the lineup in a game like that, it might have helped to keep the pace with Troy's team yesterday.

Winnipeg Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey was a late scratch ahead of the game against the Islanders on Tuesday night, citing a lower-body injury. The blueliner took the pregame skate, but deemed the injury too much and decided not to go.  He's considered to be day-to-day and will likely be questionable for Friday's contest in St. Louis.

Morrissey has been one of Wes' best defenders, so far this this season, picking up 12 points in 26 games with the Jets.  I don't think he'll be out for very long, at least that's the impression I get with taking the pregame skate.

In the game between Boston and Florida last night, Panthers forward Nick Bjugstad was rocked pretty good by Connor Clifton, forcing the power forward from the game in the 3rd period. There has been no update on Bjugstad's condition or the nature of the injury that he suffered that forced him from the game, but if it is anything of a serious nature, I'm sure we'll have an update on the blog before too long.

Bjugstad has been underachieving for Brian's team so far this season and I'm sure Brian probably would have taken advantage of the bonus round, if he saw this injury only a few days ago.  The Panthers forward has only picked up 10 points in 26 games this season, far from expectations.

Another injury on the ice last night, this time in that Washington/Vegas game, where Tom Wilson was the recipient of a solid blindside check from Ryan Reaves and it knocked him out of the game with an upper-body injury.  Of course, the irony is not lost on this news byte at all, but with how productive Wilson has been, this could be some big news, if the injury is substantial. 

Since returning from his long suspension earlier this year, Wilson has 14 points in 11 games and has been one of Scott's best players.  If there was something to be concerned about for Scott in this blog post, it would be this injury.