Morning Player Notes (Mar 15)

It sounds like Cam Ward is ready to return to regular backup duties for the Chicago Blackhawks, so rookie keeper Collin Delia was reassigned back to the AHL from his emergency recall, only appearing in relief once, when Corey Crawford couldn't finish a game due to illness.  Delia will likely be getting a good chunk of work with the minor league team down the stretch, which the Blackhawks are hoping will help his development moving forward.

Of course, that doesn't help Derek B.'s team much, but his wrap on the rookie points is all but certain.  His team has finally dropped down to last place in the overall standings, as Scott moved ahead of him on Thursday night and Derek now sits 4 points back.

It sounds like a trip up to the press box for Kyle Turris has more to do with some of his mediocre scoring numbers than anything else, as the Nashville Predators move closer and closer to the playoffs.  Turris currently ranks 368th in hockey pool scoring this season with 7 goals and 22 points in 46 games this season, missing significant time on two separate occasions, which probably hasn't helped his rhythm at all.  The Predators are hoping a step back will help him move forward with a little bit more confidence.

Jeremy's team could certainly use a more confident Turris this week, but his team did move out of the Basement Dweller position, if only barely, now 1 point clear of Mike's team, which now resides in the position. 

With the return of Carter Hart to the Philadelphia Flyers' net on Thursday night, the team opted to give Brian Elliott the whole night off, not making him dress as the backup and leaving that job to Cam Talbot.  Elliott will reportedly get the nod on the second half of back-to-back nights tonight, when they travel to Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs.  Since Philadelphia will likely be going down the stretch with all three goalies until the end of the year, I would expect to see more of this, like Hart going up to the press box for tonight's game.

Troy's goalie didn't exactly miss out on a start, but if Hart was to struggle, which he kind of did, there was no chance at minutes in the crease for an improbable comeback.  It's not much to hang your hat on, but it is something, I guess.  Troy's team currently sits in 10th, 8 points back of 9th.

Morning Player Notes (Feb 26)

Well, you can paint me surprised, as Corey Crawford was activated from the Injured Reserve by the Blackhawks on Monday, adding a veteran presence to their crease. This means that one of their goalies had to go and it is Collin Delia getting the call to head back to the AHL, as he is the lesser-paid keeper, still developing his game.   Delia won 6 games in his stay up with the big club, making 15 appearances to get there and picking up 12 points in total.  Of course, he'll be the first guy up, if the Blackhawks run into any more injury trouble.

Out of those 12 points, Derek B. was able to capture a win out of it, 2 points in three appearances, which is a small help to his rookie total this season.  Derek's team still holds a 15-point lead in the rookie mini-game, so there shouldn't be too much concern there.

The Devils were sellers on Monday's deadline and when they took to the ice, it was almost like the team sold off most of their training staff, as the lower-body injuries piled up on them.  Both forward Jesper Bratt and defenseman Will Butcher were already sidelined ahead of the game against the Canadiens and in that game, another pool player, forward Miles Wood, left the game with a lower-body injury of his own.  All three will be considered day-to-day until otherwise noted.

The Devils don't expect much out of this season, but there are still hockey pool teams that are depending on them to stay healthy.  Jeremy's 17th place team has Bratt, Benson's 21st place team has Butcher and Ryan's 12th place team has Wood. 

The rotation of defensemen continues in Tampa Bay and it was Mikhail Sergachev's turn to sit again, as he had a seat for the game against the Los Angeles Kings.  This rotation has been nothing new to the team, as they have already been working it for about a month and it just adds to the workload of the blog, when I take these players off and re-add them later on. 

Stuart's defenseman sits again, but his lead remains very safe.  His team added 2 more points to it last night and that was without one of his prized defenders.  Stuart's defense is tied for 9th in the pool this season with 104 points, one of the big compliments to his pool-leading forwards.

Morning Player Notes (Feb 15)

The flu bug reared its ugly head again on Thursday night, taking a bite out of Nashville Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm and forcing him out of the lineup for their game against the Montreal Canadiens.  It doesn't sound like anything too serious, just a day-to-day issue.  The Predators are in Vegas on Saturday night, which is the team's next game, which you would think he would be good to make it in for.

Ekholm has been Dale C.'s best defenseman this season, posting 40 points in 58 games, and his team is hanging on to the top 10 by the tips of its fingers.  After Thursday night's action, his team is in 10th place, only 3 points clear of 11th, but 5 points back of 7th, so there's a narrow margin for missed games at this point.

One of Toronto's key young players this season, rookie forward Andreas Johnsson, was hurt last night against the Vegas Golden Knights, suffering a leg-on-leg collision with defenseman Brayden McNabb and it forced him from the game, not to return.  There wasn't any update on his condition after the game, so we'll have to wait for an update from the team, which should come fairly soon, the Leafs are in Arizona for a Saturday evening game.

It took a little while for Johnsson to get going for the Leafs this season, but lately he has been a bit of a dynamo.  In 51 games, he has 31 points, including 3 points this week, which has been good news for Wilton's team, up until the injury, of course.  Johnsson has Wilton's team in the top five for the rookie pool, not really carrying any hope to win with only one rookie.

The Vancouver Canucks are going through some injury struggles of their own these days and it has crept into the hockey pool players, as Jake Virtanen was the latest player to come out of the lineup, suffering an upper-body injury against the Ducks on Wednesday night and was unable to play against the Kings on Thursday night.  Virtanen has been scheduled for an MRI this week, no mention of when, so it's not related to any sort of head injury, but it could keep him out for a little bit yet.

Grant picked up Virtanen in the Week Nine Waiver Draft and has collected adequately with him since he was activated, picking up 10 points in 29 games.  It isn't a huge total, far from the best in that player swap, but he was helping the 3rd place team stay afloat.  Grant's team is 6 points back of 2nd and 3 points up on 4th, even less room to move and lose skater games to.

Dallas Stars stud defenseman John Klingberg was forced from last night's game against the Lightning late after blocking a shot in the 3rd period. This could have been more of a precautionary move, since the Stars were getting beat pretty bad in this one and there was no sense pushing him in this one. We'll have to wait and see for an update, as the team didn't have anything after the game.  The Stars are in Carolina on Saturday for their next game, there'll likely be an update before then.

Eric's team sits comfortably in 18th place and has its eyes on 17th place, which it only sits 4 points back of and his team is having a decent week at 18 points, so far.  There's no guarantee that this injury is all that serious, it could just be a blip on the radar screen.

The Detroit Red Wings have decided to send rookie defenseman Dennis Cholowski down to the minors, likely to get himself a confidence boost.  He has been a healthy scratch for the last three games and had an 8-game pointless streak before then, so it could very well be a stint to get him some more minutes.  There's no guarantee that he'll be brought back this season, but if his minutes and numbers improve, there won't be any harm in bringing him back up before the end of the season, since big league minutes are more valuable, if he can get them.

This certainly hurts Clayton's chances at the rookie pool now, as two out of his three rookies are either now in the minors or on the Injured Reserve.  His team is now 4 points back of top spot in the mini-game and only has one rookie left on his roster.

Morning Player Notes (Feb 5)

One note missed through the Week Eighteen Waiver Draft, which may have been some key information at the time, was that goaltender Adin Hill was sent down to the minors on the 14th of January, somewhat hidden away in the all of the shuffle.  The Coyotes goaltending situation is rather fluid, so there's always a chance of a return.

This was missed at both levels, the team picking the player, Derek B., and the one orchestrating the Waiver Draft, the Opiated Sherpa.  Derek says he did his research, but since it was a couple of weeks from his demotion, it was easily missed.

A few notes from the Vancouver Canucks on Monday night, as Sven Baertschi was sent home after their game in Denver, as he was not feeling well, but the team seems to think that it isn't concussion related, but they sent him home to confirm those suspicions.  A timetable for a return wasn't available, but he wasn't able to play last night in Philadelphia and won't be available for tonight in Washington.

In the game against the Flyers, defenseman Alexander Edler had an awkward fall, landing on his face and needed some extra attention to help him off the ice.  Edler was sent for X-rays on his face after the game, but there were no more updates on his condition.  He is doubtful to play in Washington tonight and is day-to-day for the time being.

In the pregame warm-ups before the Flyers game, backup goalie Thatcher Demko tweaked something in the lower-body and he won't be making a scheduled start tonight in Washington.  He's currently going to be listed as day-to-day, as the injury concerns now start to mount for the Canucks.

Let's see... Troy, Jeremy and Clayton, all got bit by the injury bug.  We'll update this more, if there are any other updates that are more significant than day-to-day injuries.

Noon Player Notes (Jan 31)

A somewhat surprising transaction this morning, as the Chicago Blackhawks assigned rookie defenseman Henri Jokiharju to the AHL.  The 19-year old made the team out of camp this year and has featured in plenty of game action, as well as being loaned to the Finland World Junior team, which won gold this year, but his ice-time has been on the decline and his numbers of late haven't been stellar.  Likely, this is a move to boost his ice-time and have him play some meaningful minutes, but it does remain unclear as to whether or not he'll be back up with the big team or not this season.

Timing is pretty well everything, as this move came after Brian's 2nd round pick in the Waiver Draft, but it's hard to say whether or not he would have dropped the rookie blueliner.  He has registered 12 assists in 37 games this season, which isn't too bad, but it hasn't been great lately, picking up 1 assist in his last eight games.

A minor league demotion is not a qualifier for a drop in the bonus round, since he is still healthy.

The Columbus Blue Jackets updated the status of injured forward Boone Jenner, as they now expect him to miss anywhere between 1-to-3 weeks with an infected laceration on his ankle. The team said he suffered the ankle laceration well before the All-Star break, but it became infected earlier this week and it has forced him out of the lineup.  He hasn't been placed on the IR just yet, but you could assume that it will happen soon, given the amount of time the team expects him to miss.

Steve has yet to make his 2nd round move, at the time of writing the post, so he could either consider this for his next move or if he had something else in mind, save Jenner for the bonus round.  Jenner has 21 points in 48 games this season, a reasonable contributor to his 6th place team.

Morning Player Notes (Dec 18)

The Columbus Blue Jackets were without forward Artemi Panarin on Monday night against the Golden Knights and they were thankful for the fact that they didn't need a whole lot of offense, winning a 1-0 decision on the night. Panarin is said to be dealing with a lower-body injury and that he is day-to-day at the moment, but there were no other details released.  The Russian winger has good for the Jackets this season, posting 34 points in 31 games, thus far, and he does leave a hole on the team's top line, which is hard to fill.  There's no sign of any long-term concern, so we'll hold off on the panic at the moment.

Benson's team was one of eight teams that were bageled on Monday night, but with only five games on the schedule, that shouldn't come as a big surprise.  His team is in a cushioned spot at the moment, sitting in 20th, 17 points behind 19th and 9 points up on 21st.  He might not be changing spots any time soon.

On Tuesday morning, the Ottawa Senators announced that they had sent back rookie forward Drake Batherson to the AHL after a pretty good stint with the team.  Batherson's production fell off in the last couple of weeks and with some bodies coming back from injury, the kid didn't exactly make a case for himself to stay up and play.  One would have to think that he would be the first body back up, if anything else were to happen injury-wise this season.

Disappointing news for Clayton's team, which only got his first point for his hockey pool team since activating him from the Waiver Draft.  Clayton's team still has a comfortable lead in the rookie pool, but Derek B. is coming after his side, so it could be a good race now.

Afternoon Player Notes (Dec 12)

A tweak in practice on Monday kept Alex Galchenyuk out of the Coyotes' lineup on Tuesday night against the Bruins.  He's officially listed as out day-today with a lower-body injury and when reports are out there saying 'tweak,' you would have to think it's a groin issue of some sort, the most common tweak of them all.  It doesn't sound too serious, but he wasn't on the ice for practice on Wednesday either, so he's questionable, at best, for Thursday's game in Buffalo.

Wes should consider his team still in the thick of it all, ranking 9th in the pool, although it is 25 points back of 3rd place today.  There's still plenty of time to make that space up, but he'll need all the help he can gets, like getting Galchenyuk back in Arizona's lineup.

Columbus forward Josh Anderson left Tuesday night's game against the Canucks with an upper-body injury, as he went head first into the cross bar in the offensive zone, leaving the game, not to return.  He wasn't on the ice for practice and there wasn't a definitive answer as to when he would be back on the ice, but he's considered to be day-to-day for right now.

More bad luck for Brenda & Seward, who can't seem to catch any breaks at all this season, as Anderson was their 2nd round pick in the Waiver Draft a couple of weeks ago.  He has appeared in four games for the Jackets, since being activated, and has picked up a goal.

We're not too sure what the injury to Colorado Avalanche forward Alexander Kerfoot is, but whatever it is, held him out of Tuesday's game against the Oilers.  Without any details, he's currently listed as day-to-day, but it is something we'll be keeping an eye out for, if there is more information to be had here in the next day or so.  The Avs are in St. Louis on Friday night, so we hope to have more info by then.

Stacey C.'s 19th place team had a pretty rough night on Tuesday and this is just the start of it.  We'll have some more blog posting going on this afternoon and we'll learn more about how tough it's going to be for his side moving forward.

It's been a rough week for Los Angeles defensemen, as the team had already lost Alec Martinez to an upper-body injury, placed on the IR on Wednesday and in Tuesday night's contest, they lost both Drew Doughty and Dion Phaneuf to upper-body injuries, leaving the game not to return.  Doughty remains on the road with the team, while Phaneuf was sent back home from the trip for further tests, both will be listed as day-to-day for right now.

We already posted about Martinez this week, so there's no surprises there, and Doughty is the only other pool defenseman, as Phaneuf was dropped in the Waiver Draft a couple of weeks ago.  Doughty belongs to Benson's team, which ranks 22nd in defensemen scoring this season and could be overtaken, if this injury is significant.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are welcoming Matt Murray back to their active roster, which means that one of their goalies needed to be sent down to make room and that goalie was Tristan Jarry, sent down to the minors on Wednesday morning.  Jarry had only made two starts this season, failing to win either and it will be Murray and Casey DeSmith carrying the load for now.

Neil held onto Jarry through the Waiver Draft, unsure of when Murray was going to be healthy and it didn't really pay off for him at all.  No wins for Jarry and no more starts in the near future for him either.

Week Nine Newsletter

Well, a few of you have been screaming for the Waiver Draft to happen, a few more were wondering why the players were not active as soon as we took them, but now the wait is pretty much over.  We've gone through the Waiver Draft week, the first two rounds went rather swimmingly, we had a few more picks in the bonus round to add a few more healthy bodies to the pool and now we wait to see if these moves bear fruit for us.

First things first though... let's recap the week that was!



It was a fairly impressive week for individual scorers in Week Nine, as the final tally saw a number of players with 7 points or better, a good handful of them were finished at 8 points, but only one player outshone them all with 9 points and that was Florida's Jonathan Huberdeau, who was consistently on the board for the Panthers all week long.

Huberdeau opened up the week with a goal and a pair of assists against the Devils on Monday, had a pair of assists against the Ducks on Wednesday, another pair of assists against the Sabres on Friday and then a goal and an assist against the Lightning on Saturday.  2 goals and 7 assists in four games now gives the Panthers pivot a total of 6 goals and 22 assists in 25 games this year, good enough for 35th overall in hockey pool scoring, so far this year.

The 25-year old is really finding his form now with the Panthers and it looks like Ryan is cashing in on that success, taking him in the 3rd round of the draft, 62nd overall, he's turning into a decent bargain player, up near the top of the scoring ranks.

The 3rd overall pick in the 2011 entry draft has never made it to the heights of the Player of the Week nod before and he has been playing since the 2013 season.  It has been a long time coming for him.  As for Ryan, this appears to be his 8th Player of the Week nod, dating back to the 2012 season.

Ryan doesn't only take the Player of the Week nod, he sweeps the good nods in the Newsletter in Week Nine, also taking the Mover & Shaker after a very good race, which was quite back-and-forth, finishing up with 37 points and his team moved from 14th up to 7th place in the standings, certainly giving good meaning to the moving and the shaking.

So, besides the Player of the Week nod, Ryan also had some pretty big weeks from Mikko Rantanen of the Avalanche, who had 7 points, Evgenii Dadonov of the Panthers, who had 6 points and Nick Schmaltz, fresh in the desert, finished with 4 points.  It was a pretty top-heavy week for Ryan's team, but I don't think he's going to complain much.  His goalies did nothing for him and he had one other skater fail to register a point, due to injury, so top-heavy does seem to be the right word to describe his team this week.

At 7th place at the end of the week, this is his peak position at Newsletter time this season and his team has been making some strong strides after a fairly slow start.  At the one-third mark of the season, his forwards ranked 2nd in the pool with 164 points, defense is tied for 12th at 41 points and his goalies are tied for 21st with 22 points.  His team has stayed relatively healthy, tied for 3rd in skater games played and his plan to avoid goalies early on shows, ranking 23rd in goalie minutes played.

Let's see if his Waiver Draft picks can shore up some of those spots and maybe, just maybe, he can keep this momentum going.

Ryan has been putting in a team in the hockey pool draft on the website since it went up in the 2008 season and he may only have eight Player of the Week nods, but this brings his overall total of Movers & Shakers to 14.  That ties him for 5th on the all-time list.

It was certainly a letdown week for John P., especially right down at the end of the week, where his team just couldn't find any footing on the score sheets over the weekend.  His team was lingering down near the bottom of the weekly standings for its entirety and just when it counted the most, when Sunday rolled around, the teams around his picked up the necessary points and left him alone as the Basement Dweller for Week Nine.

With only 13 points in Week Nine, John's team fell from 8th to 14th, just below the standings equator and it couldn't come at a worse time, since this is the first week after the Waiver Draft order was decided and his picks don't improve, unless he holds steady for another nine weeks.

John's team was carried by the best player on his team, John Carlson of the Capitals, picking up 4 points in the week to lead the way for his team, but there were six no-shows, two of them due to injury in the week.

His team is only 30 points out of the money at the start of the second segment of the season and change at forward and another on defense, his team should be able to make that up with a couple good runs during the rest of the season.  A comeback is certainly not impossible at this point, not even improbable either.

The three teams up at the top remained the same, but the order has changed this week, as Stuart's team was in the running for the Mover & Shaker and overtook Troy's team, which only did okay in the week.  Stuart's team took down a 13-point gap and put 3 points between his team and Troy's, which now stands at 250-247 after the first segment.  Stacey M. is holding tight at 243 points, well within striking range of top spot, while Kristy & Don captured 4th place with 241 points, followed closely by Grant at 240 points.  Mike rounds out the top group at 236 points, then we have a bit of a drop off to the next group.

The second segment is all about the new picks, so these middle teams that made some clutch picks, may have given themselves a chance in this next segment to catch those top teams.

The landscape of the rookie pool is about to change with the Waiver Draft, as Derek B. has made a push, acquiring four new rookies on his team and it will look to compete with Clayton's team for the $60 prize at the end of the tunnel.  Clayton's team sits at 36 points after the first segment, 15 points clear of John P., both teams making swaps at the rookie position, hoping to improve upon their numbers with one switch.  Ryan is in 3rd at 18 points, no changes, while Stuart, Jesse and Derek B. are all at 16 points.  Stuart didn't make any changes, for or against, Jesse dropped two underachieving rookies, leaving one to still play, while Derek picked up four forwards and that now gives him six on his team, five in the NHL right now.  This should be a good race.

I think there were only two shootouts in total in Week Nine, which only provided us with 4 goals in total.  Brian's team picked up 2 of those goals, now giving him 4 goals on the season, now tied for 3rd in the mini-game through one segment.

Jeremy and Mike continue to lead the pool with 5 goals each.  I don't think there is an adequate tie-breaker for this game, so teams that are atop the standings here will split the money, if there is no clear winner.

There really isn't a lot that anyone could do in the Waiver Draft with this game, especially with the lack of shootouts there have been this year. 

There was also no real gauging how game-winning goals would be affected by the Waiver Draft, so there's no real metric for it, unless you think Devin Shore of the Stars is going to continue his run of clutch scoring, then Mike did well to snap up him, the leader in the category at the start of the Waiver Draft.

Stuart, Clayton, Benson, Brian and Steve all had 3 winners in Week Nine, leading the weekly clutch scoring, but Stuart still leads the overall game with 17 winners, followed by Clayton at 14 and then four more teams at 13.  Either you got some clutch scoring on your team or you don't.

Goon team of the week belongs to Tony, thanks in large part to Duncan Keith of the Blackhawks, as his team finished with 41 minutes in penalties, just a couple off the season-high this year, set by our PIM pool leader, Stuart.

The penalty minutes aren't paying, so there were no big goons being taken at the Waiver Draft and I do miss those days.  It really put a charge into the season, watching those teams gut it out all year.  Stuart would have the first segment lead at 189 minutes, well ahead of Steve's team, which sits at 167 minutes.

I kind of wish I kept track of the top PIM-getter in the Waiver Draft, just for shits and giggles, but I didn't.  Damn.

All four teams that were qualified for Week Nine has made it through Week Nine and have qualified for Week Ten.  Troy, Wes, Jeremy and Stacey M. are all through for another week.  Of the seven goalies dropped and the seven goalies picked, none of those transactions came from a surviving team, so they are all ready to rock with their original two into next week.

The top team in the plus/minus department in Week Nine belonged to Wes, who had a combined rating of +20 and took the overall lead in the pool at a combined rating of +47.  Wes only has two players in the minuses among his skaters this season and is just killing it in this non-paying game at the moment.

On the other side of the ledger, Clayton's team set a new season-low in this department, as his team was a combined -23 in the week, also overtaking last place at a combined -40.  His team has the points, but a lot of them are coming on the power play.

In case you missed it over the weekend, the NHL has already opened up the voting for the All-Star Game festivities, where you can vote for your hockey pool players to captain their respective divisions in the 3-on-3 tournament they'll have at the end of January.  Of course, I will be keeping track of the scoring of it, as if it was a mini-game and posting the results on the blog, but sadly, unlike last year, it won't count towards any money.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't vote your players in though.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

Being the last week of the segment, it's refreshing to see that it isn't the worst week for overall scoring in the pool, finishing at 12.02 points per NHL game on the schedule, to which there were 51 games and a total of 613 points.  Participation was also pretty low, not quite the lowest, but still so damn close, both skaters and goalies were down, but that's all going to change with the healthy bodies we've injected into the pool.

Let's get those numbers up and get these races kick-started again!  Hoorah!

NEWS AND NOTES

The Buffalo Sabres have sent forward Jason Pominville back to Buffalo to get tended to by team doctors, just ahead of their game on the road in Nashville on Monday night.  Pominville will miss that game, but pending the results of his testing, may or may not be ready for their game on the second half of back-to-back nights, at home against the Maple Leafs.  He'll be considered day-to-day tonight, unless any other news pops up.  Pominville was hurt on Friday against the Panthers.

This just seems to be the luck that Brenda & Seward have had this season, as Pominville was the 1st pick in the Waiver Draft, the highest profile forward available at the time and now he won't be ready to go for game one on their roster.  If the news is indeed bad on Monday, they will have the option to dump him, but here's hoping it's a day-to-day issue.

On Sunday night against the Flames, the Chicago Blackhawks opted to make defenseman Erik Gustafsson a healthy scratch for the first time this season.  He played a season-high of 27 minutes in the game against the Predators on Saturday, but was a -2 on the night and the combination of the two stats may have indicated that he needed a little rest.  In the three games previous, he had 2 goals and 3 points, so his numbers are certainly going up at the right time of the season.

It was fairly ironic though, as Tony picked up Gustafsson in the Waiver Draft and took him after dropping Andrew MacDonald of the Flyers, who had a 3-point game on Saturday against the Penguins.  He still got those 3 points, but the player he picked up was for a player that was being scratched all the time.

An abysmal showing on Saturday night in Montreal forced the hand of the New York Rangers coaching staff and they scratched defenseman Brady Skjei for their game against the Jets on Sunday night.  Skjei was just all over the place in some bad defensive positions and obviously, the coaching staff saw what I saw and that cost him a game, if not more to come.  Skjei only has 8 points in 25 games, so his offensive game is also not quite making up for his defensive lapses.

For Clayton's team, Skjei wasn't the worst defenseman on his team heading into the Waiver Draft, so he was spared a drop, not that there was too much that would improve upon 8 points, to date.  His defense is in the middle of the pack, but has made a significant add this past week to help boost those numbers.

San Jose Sharks defenseman Joakim Ryan found himself up in the press box again, when his team took on the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday evening.  Ryan has been in and out of the lineup on a few occasions this season, unable to really hold down his own spot on a regular basis.

In 25 games this season, he has only posted 4 assists, but Eric had bigger fish to fry, it would seem, at the Waiver Draft and elected to keep Ryan through to the next segment of the season.  There is a fine chance that we'll be seeing his name up on the blog a few more times in the second segment, unless he gets his act together.

Well, in order to make some room for the incoming William Nylander, who should have arrived in Toronto yesterday, the Toronto Maple Leafs needed to drop a player from the roster and send him down to the minors, before his activation.  That body was defenseman Travis Dermott, who had been a healthy scratch over the weekend and still doesn't have to pass through waivers to get down to the AHL, so it was an easy decision.

Brian couldn't have found a better time to drop him either, as the under-performing defender finishes the first segment with 1 goal and 6 points in 24 games with the Leafs.  He was replaced by Jamie Oleksiak of the Penguins at the draft.

Noon Player Notes (Nov 28)

In case you haven't heard yet, the Toronto Maple Leafs will get Auston Matthews back in the lineup tonight, when they take on the San Jose Sharks at home.  Matthews has missed the last month with a shoulder injury and has been given the green light to return.  The Maple Leafs will definitely be happy to get him back, not to mention a number of players like Frederik Andersen, who will all see improvements in their numbers upon his return, not that the Leafs are in bad shape, still in 3rd place in the Atlantic Division.

One team that really did suffer from this injury was Benson's team.  His team was already slipping up a bit when Matthews was given his 4-week timetable, dropping down to 4th place back at the end of October and has fallen much further, down at 21st after Tuesday night's schedule.  Matthews has 16 points in 11 games this season and will be looking to get right back after it.

The Bruins have recalled rookie forward Ryan Donato on Wednesday night after a month of being down in the AHL and he could be reinserted back into the Bruins' lineup on Thursday night, when the team hosts the Islanders. Donato was off to a slow start in his NHL season, 1 goal in 11 games, but posted 9 points in 10 games in the AHL and has caught the eye of the coaching staff, as their team has struggled for goals outside of the team's top line this season.

Rumour has it that Donato was going to be Clayton's 2nd round drop in the Waiver Draft, but it now has to be somewhat reconsidered, one would have to assume.  Will Clayton's drop come before or after Donato takes the ice and shows off some new found confidence?  We shall see.