Morning Player Notes (Feb 1)

Cam Atkinson of the Blue Jackets was a late scratch on Thursday night in Winnipeg, when he took a puck in the face in warm-ups and needed repairs done.  There was no post-game update on his condition, but how bad could a puck in the face be?  Okay, yeah... it could do quite a bit of damage and a head snapping back after the collision could force a concussion, so we'll wait and see.  Columbus plays again on Saturday night, at home to St. Louis.

The small-ish forward has been Clayton's best forward this season, posting 50 points in 48 games with the Jackets, so missing out on last night's game was a bit of a stinger.  Clayton's team has been managing this week, posting 7 points already and keeping the pace in the top 10.

The Detroit Red Wings have ruled Tyler Bertuzzi out of this weekend's action with an upper-body injury, which was reportedly suffered before the break, back on January 22nd against the Oilers.  The Red Wings have not disclosed the nature of the injury, but now that we're almost two weeks on from when the injury occurred, one really has to begin to wonder what it could be.  He has been a very productive player on a mediocre team and it could be an injury which helps them reach the bottom of the overall standings.

Bertuzzi has been okay for Benson's team since being picked up in the Week Nine Waiver Draft, posting 12 points in 22 games, that's tied for 13th in scoring among those players.  If news does pop up that the injury is significant, Benson has until puck drop on Monday to make the swap out, trying to help his 21st place team.