Morning Player Notes (Feb 23)

Florida Panthers defenseman Mike Matheson was not in the lineup for Thursday night's game against the Carolina Hurricanes, as he is currently dealing with a lower-body injury.  Matheson was reportedly hurt on Tuesday night against the Sabres, suffering the injury and not returning to the game.  Not many details have been posted about his status, but with 5 goals and 20 points this season, he may not be the biggest draw, when it comes to injury news.

For John P., he has been actually quite serviceable, ranking 68th among all defensemen in hockey pool scoring, well within the worthy rankings, so I'm sure John is hopeful that the injury is minor and that he can be back before too long.

Well, the first of a few names on this post that are being held out of action, due to the trade deadline... Marcus Johansson of the New Jersey Devils. The Devils are now sellers, having moved Ben Lovejoy to Dallas on Saturday morning, but Johansson has yet to go, sitting on Thursday night against the Senators and is expected to miss today's contest against the Rangers as well.

Like other pool teams waiting on shoes to drop, Wilton has Johansson and is waiting for this deal to get done.  His team is in 9th and moving up the ranks, so getting an upgrade in this position will certainly help.

In that same game on Thursday night, it was the big three for the Senators, Matt Duchene, Mark Stone and Ryan Dzingel, all being held out of action against the Devils to save their trade value.  Of course, as we all know already, that was already paid off for them on Friday, just before they played the Blue Jackets, to which the other two had sat out for that game and they play against the Flames on Sunday, where if no deal has been made, they'll sit again.

Thursday lost game was a missed skater game for Jesse, Eric and Wes, Friday was just Eric and Wes and right now, that pair are projected to miss another game.  It's amazing how the trade deadline really screws with the hockey pool, eh?

St. Louis Blues forward Brayden Schenn missed out on Thursday night's game in Dallas after he suffered an upper-body injury against the Leafs on Tuesday night.  He's currently listed as day-to-day, no specific details have been made available yet on his condition and he's probably on the questionable/doubtful border for today's game against the Bruins.

Schenn has been good for Dale C.'s team this season, posting 39 points in 50 games this year, but he hasn't been over-the-top great.  Taken 102nd overall in the draft, but only ranks 131st after Thursday's action, there is a little disappointment in there.

On Friday night, the Anaheim Ducks were without Ryan Getzlaf, due to an upper-body injury. The reports suggest he was a late scratch from the game against the Flames, so take that for what it's worth, as it sounds like he should have been good to go, but wasn't at the last second. There was no more word, so far, on Saturday morning, but we'll be keeping an eye out for more details. The Ducks finish off back-to-backs against the Oilers tonight, so we'll probably know more before then.

The pool leader suffers a missed skater game, as Stuart's team has lost a little bit of its lead this week, but that lead was just far too great to begin with this week.  Stuart's team just eclipsed the 600-point mark this week and is hopeful that Getzlaf isn't out too long.

The Columbus Blue Jackets were the first team to push over one of the big trading dominoes on Friday and they were able to get that new body in their lineup right away, so that means someone had to come out and that someone was Alexander Wennberg. Wennberg has been a real disappointment in the offensive stat sheets, only picking up 2 goals and 23 points in 59 games, and his name has been hanging around the trade rumours, as we move towards the deadline, possibly trying to find him a new lease on life in the NHL.

Clayton's team is among that group of teams in the standings where they are not separated by many points, 6th to 13th are only 20 points apart, and Wennberg has been one of the anchors sinking Clayton's team this week, not producing any points.  This scratch may lead to a trade, who knows?

A spot of the flu kept Jimmy Howard out of the lineup on Friday night, giving an impromptu start to Jonathan Bernier in his stead. Howard has also been on the block, as a potential rental goalie at this deadline, but wasn't feeling well enough to dress last night. He was at practice on Saturday morning, so there are definitely some positives out there.  If he isn't dealt, expect him to be good to go on Sunday against San Jose.

Tony's team has bumped its way up to 8th place this week, toiling in the tight group in the standings.  He was certainly missing that start, his team sits 9 points out of 6th after Friday night's action, but the Wings did lose, so there wasn't really 2 points to be had there, in theory.

Last year's top defenseman for the Golden Knights, Colin Miller, has been the odd-man out of their lineup, acting as a healthy scratch for both games against Boston on Wednesday and Winnipeg on Friday, the coaching staff probably not very happy with his -3 rating against the Avalanche on Monday.  Miller hasn't posted a point in two weeks, which probably doesn't help his cause and now the Golden Knights don't play again until Tuesday, so we won't see anything more develop out of this story until next week.  If I had to guess, he'd be back in by then.

Jeremy's 16th place team has had a strong blueline this season, ranking 5th in the pool with 131 points so far and Miller has been a decent part of that, posting 23 points in 48 games.  The rest of Jeremy's team, however, hasn't been that good.

It sounds like Carter Hart was hurt in the lead-up to the Stadium Series game, which goes tonight and he is now expected to miss the next 7-to-10 days with a lower-body injury. It was somewhat surprising to many, when the coaching staff didn't name him as the starter for tonight's showcase game, but this would be the reason why. He won't likely hit the Injured Reserve, with rosters expanding after Monday, but you never know. The Flyers don't play again until Tuesday, so they won't technically need the spot.

Certainly disappointing for Jeremy, but there is no money in the outdoor games this year, so he's only missing out on 2 points for the overall standings.