Morning Player Notes (Jan 2)

It was announced on Wednesday morning, that Alex Ovechkin has informed the NHL that he will not be participating in this year's All-Star Game festivities, opting to take advantage of the time off to rest up for the unofficial second half of the season and prepare for the playoff push.  In doing so, Ovechkin will have to likely sit for a game, as per league rules, which would likely be the game on February 1st, home to the Flames.  I would imagine that the league will name his replacement fairly soon.

This news won't have an effect on the pool until the end of the month or the beginning of next month, but it's out there, so we might as well make note of it.  This means that Jesse will miss a skater game at some point near the end of the month, due to the league suspension and he won't have a player in the All-Star festivities that should likely be there.

Yesterday, the Arizona Coyotes announced that forward Nick Schmaltz was day-to-day with a lower-body injury, but didn't say much more than that. It kind of sounds like he was unable to practice on Tuesday, so this would be why they had mentioned something. I would say he's probably questionable for tonight's game, at home against the Oilers, but with an injury announcement, it may even lean more to doubtful.  It's tough to tell at the moment.

On Wednesday morning, the Calgary Flames announced that they had recalled Jon Gillies from the AHL and he'll fill David Rittich's spot for tonight in Detroit, as Rittich is reportedly dealing with a lower-body injury of his own and is now day-to-day.  It sounds like Rittich may have pulled something in the New Year's Eve game against the San Jose Sharks, but was able to finish the game, registering the win.  The Flames are now on the road for four games and Rittich is still traveling with the team, so he may not be out for very long.

Both Schmaltz and Rittich belong to Ryan's 8th place team in the standings and this isn't the way that Ryan wants to see his team start the New Year.  Fortunately, neither injury sounds like they are serious, but his team has been treading water in the top 10 and could still be for a while yet, but moving up seems somewhat unlikely over the next few days.