Noon Player Notes (Jan 19)

On Saturday morning, the NHL announced that they have officially replaced Taylor Hall of the New Jersey Devils on the Metropolitan Division All-Star team with his teammate Kyle Palmieri, as Hall has been out since Christmas with a lower-body injury.  There has been no real indication of a return date for Hall, other than to say that he has been ruled out of this afternoon's game against Anaheim and then they start a CBA mandated bye week, ahead of the All-Star break.

Palmieri was a part of the vote for the Last Man Voted contest, but ended up losing out to Kris Letang of the Penguins, but with this injury replacement, he still makes it in.  In 47 games, he has 22 goals and 38 points, good enough for 78th overall in pool scoring.

The removal of Hall now takes Mike's only player out of the All-Star festivities and the addition of Palmieri is an add for Brenda & Seward's pool team, who now have two players going to next weekend's tourney.

The St. Louis Blues have announced from their morning skate that forward David Perron will sit out tonight for the game against the Ottawa Senators, due to an upper-body injury.  There was no more details given about the injury, so we will consider him day-to-day for now and with the All-Star break only a few days away, there may not be any rush to bring him back either.  On the plus side, it sounds like Alexander Steen is a game-time decision for the club, possibly taking Perron's spot.  Steen has been out for the last couple weeks with an upper-body injury as well.

So, it's a missed skater game coming up for Steve's team and the possibility of a return for Stacey C.'s pool team tonight.  Steve's team is close to the top of the weekly standings, heading into play today with 19 points, while Stacey's team is down at 13 points, 1 point clear of the bottom and could really use this return.