Player Notes in the Draft (Jan 11)

It was a busy night in the NHL on Saturday and the news from last night will keep me busy for a few days, it would seem.

One injury that we're keeping an eye on is the status of Detroit number one goalie Jimmy Howard, who had to leave the game between the Red Wings and Capitals, not even two minutes into the game. Howard appeared to have suffered a substantial injury, when he had to be carted of on a stretcher and later on in the game, the team confirmed that it was a groin injury that Howard had suffered.  Test will have to be done and we may be a day or two from final word, but this is thought to be considerable.

Terrible news for Dale B., who had been seeing a slight upswing in his team's performance of late, moving up to 14th over the last couple weeks, from his season-low 18th after Week Twelve.  If this injury is long-term, there could be a slight drop-off again in the standings.

On another note for Dale B., this is an injury to his only All-Star representative, which would leave him with no one, assuming Tuukka Rask doesn't replace him as a roster player in the game.

The youth of the Los Angeles Kings took a significant hit on Saturday, as Tyler Toffoli has reportedly come down with mono and was a scratch from their game against the Jets, while Tanner Pearson left the game with a lower-body injury, which we're monitoring for more news.

First, for Toffoli, the Kings are only listing him as out day-to-day, but the last player that I have on the blog to have suffered mono was Mike Comrie, back in 2010, and my posts say he missed 30 games before being dealt from Edmonton to Pittsburgh.  If this happens to be the case, it could be a significant loss.  Toffoli has been one of the Kings' better players this year, scoring 12 goals and 15 assists in 41 games, so losing out on that kind of offense could be deadly.

The initial word on Pearson is that he may have a broken bone in his leg after colliding awkwardly into the boards on Saturday night.  There has been no confirmation from the team, so it is taken with a dash of salt, but we all know how guarded the Kings are with their injuries, so finding out for sure will be a task all of its own.  Pearson will be listed as day-to-day until otherwise noted.  Pearson has been having a decent year, as a rookie, selected to the All-Star festivities on Saturday after scoring 12 goals and 16 points in 42 games.

The pool's leading goal scoring team, Grant K.'s, will now be without Toffoli for a while, it would seem, which hurts his chances of climbing back into the top 10 any time soon.  Grant's team fell further behind, now 16 points back of 10th, in 13th place.  And for Tony, it has already been a rough week, the pool leader for the Basement Dweller, going into Sunday's quiet schedule, as he awaits word on a loss of a body, possibly for a few weeks.  Tony has dropped from 3rd to 6th this week, illustrating how close that group was going into the week.

Little has been made about the lower-body injury that Mikhail Grabovski has suffered, but a note here should suffice, it would seem. Grabovski was reportedly hurt in Friday night's game between the Islanders and the Devils, which forced him from Saturday's game in Columbus.  From what I've seen so far, there isn't much for how he was injured or how long they expect him to be out, but he is currently listed as out day-to-day, so we'll leave it at that until something else is mentioned.

Grabovski hasn't been great for Allan or the Islanders this year, only picking up 14 points in 38 games this season.  Unofficially, I have Grabovski ranked 301st in pool scoring overall, which isn't too far from where he was selected, 295th, down in the 13th round.

Another injury will put Allan on the verge of last place, as he sits there already, going into Sunday's action in 22nd place, only 1 point up on 23rd (last).

It has been a couple weeks since Patrick Wiercioch was on the blog site (I think), but he has made a return to the press box as a healthy scratch, which means he gets another note here.  In some regular action, Wiercioch didn't really endear himself to his NHL team, failing to register anything offensive, which is one of the big reasons he's put into games.  In 24 games played, the 24-year old only has 1 goal and 4 points this year, way below expectations.

Unfortunately for Dale C., he felt he had some bigger fish to fry in the Waiver Draft, so Wiercioch wasn't dropped in Week Nine, but he remains a strong candidate for the boot in Week Eighteen, which is only a month away now.

Finally, in one of the early games on Saturday, Flyers goalie Steve Mason had to exit the crease against the Bruins with, what is described as a knee injury, and he was unable to return.  Mason was dealing with some injury problems all week at practice, but he did manage to suit up for a full game earlier in the week, but it just looked like something popped and that was it for Mason.  Currently, he's listed as day-to-day, but that's likely before a battery of tests that need to be done on his knee.  We'll await what the final prognosis is.

Did I mention that Allan was having a tough year yet?  Well, this is one of his goalies and as of Sunday morning, he now has six players on the injury list, three on the Injured Reserve, one came back last night (Tobias Enstrom of the Jets) and there are two now on with no official prognosis.  Tomorrow, we'll highlight where he stands in the trophy race, so I won't spoil it for you now.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

The Entire All-Star Lineup Announced

On Saturday, the NHL announced the remainder of the All-Star Game participants, ahead of the Fantasy Draft, which will go on January 22nd.

I have the list sorted for by pool teams, because that's what I'm really after when I'm writing about it after the fact.

There are a few more elements to consider when looking at the players that were selected... one, I included the rookies who are going to participate in the skills competition; two, every NHL team has to be represented and things really got skewed when five Blackhawks were selected to the starting lineup, as selected by the fan votes.

With all of that being said, let's have a look at our All-Stars...

Player	NHL	Pos	Pool
Radim Vrbata	VAN	F	Benson
---
Anze Kopitar	LOS	F	Brenda & Seward
Filip Forsberg *	NAS	F
---
John Tavares	NYI	F	Brian
Tyler Johnson	TAM	F
---
Ryan Getzlaf	ANA	F	Cam
Brent Burns	SAN	D
---
Duncan Keith	CHI	D	Clayton
Drew Doughty	LOS	D
Shea Weber	NAS	D
---
Jimmy Howard	DET	G	Dale B.
---
Corey Crawford	CHI	G	Dale C.
Jakub Voracek	PHI	F
Vladimir Tarasenko	STL	F
Jonathan Drouin *	TAM	F
---
Sergei Bobrovsky	CBJ	G	Wilton
John Gaudreau *	CAL	F
---
Patrice Bergeron	BOS	F	Grant K.
Rick Nash	NYR	F
Steven Stamkos	TAM	F
---
Ryan Johansen	CBJ	F	Grant S.
Aaron Ekblad *	FLA	D
---
Pekka Rinne	NAS	G	Kristy & Don
Alex Ovechkin	WAS	F
---
Brent Seabrook	CHI	D	Leo
Evgeni Malkin	PIT	F
---
Marc Giordano	CAL	D	Mike
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins	EDM	F
---
Tyler Seguin	DAL	F	Ryan
Bobby Ryan	OTT	F
---
Oliver Ekman-Larsson	ARI	D	Scott
Zemgus Gigensons	BUF	F
Ryan Suter	MIN	D
---
Patrick Kane	CHI	F	Stacey C.
---
Justin Faulk	CAR	D	Stacey M.
Jonathan Toews	CHI	F
---
Roberto Luongo	FLA	G	Stuart
Sidney Crosby	PIT	F
---
Tanner Pearson *	LOS	F	Tony
Kevin Shattenkirk	STL	D
Phil Kessel	TOR	F
Dustin Byfuglien	WPG	F
---
Claude Giroux	PHI	F	Troy
---
Nick Foligno	CBJ	F	Wes
Erik Johnson	COL	D
Carey Price	MTL	G
---
Patrik Elias	NJD	F	Dropped
Mike Hoffman *	OTT	F	Not Picked

At first glance, not every pool team has been represented on the roster, but this is by no means the final result of the roster, since changes are likely to happen between now and the game.  No team in the pool has more than three players playing in the actual All-Star Game itself and if there was money on this, the points in the game would be all that counts.

Two pool teams have been skunked in the initial All-Star selections, Allan and Wyllie, who are the bottom two teams in the standings, before Saturday evening's action.  Ryan, who sits in 22nd, does have two selections.

On the flip side of the standings, Kristy & Don, the far & away leaders in the pool, only have two selections, while Grant S., in 2nd, has one player playing in the game and a rookie in the skills competition.

Clayton, Dale C., Grant K., Scott, Tony and Wes all have three players playing in the game, in various capacities.  Clayton would have had four players playing, if he decided to keep Patrik Elias of the Devils, who was selected as the only player from New Jersey.

In a couple weeks, we'll finally get to see the breakdown of the drafted All-Star Teams and see where all the pool players end up.

Next season, I really hope that this is a competition for getting your money back, as I think it would give the All-Star Game that extra little bit of meaning we all wish it had while watching it.

Player Notes in the Draft (Jan 10)

It sounds like the remarkable climate changes from travel may have gotten the best of Florida defenseman Dimitri Kulikov, as he sat out of Friday night's contest against the Calgary Flames, missing out on a 6-5 win and a great chance for some points, by the look of things.  There is no official word, but seeing as though that the Panthers are playing in Edmonton on Sunday, I would think that Kulikov would be questionable, at the very least, to return.  There is also a part of me that expects someone else to catch the bug, as it has been a common occurrence among teams carrying bugs.

Sounds like the amount of time missed will be minimal for Ryan, who has Kulikov this season, thanks to the Waiver Draft, that is.  Since the Waiver Draft, Kulikov has collected 5 points in 13 games for Ryan, but that hasn't truly helped his woeful blueline, which ranks 20th in the pool with only 41 total points.

The busiest night of the week is Saturday night and since I am not sure if there will be another post today, I am going to have a quick look at the goalies right now, but by no means is everything official.

At the time of the post, this much we know... Braden Holtby is going for the Capitals against the Red Wings, Craig Anderson starts for the Senators in Arizona and Brian Elliott gets the call for the Blues, who are hosting the Hurricanes.

Most of the regular number one goalies are all probable to start, minus those who are injured or those who are in a platooned situation.  By that, I mean Niklas Backstrom is expected to start for the Wild against the Predators and Michael Hutchinson should be going against the Kings tonight.

Benson has both of his goalies going tonight... head-to-head, again.  Having two goalies in the same division does have its draw backs, as Kari Lehtonen and the Stars go to visit Semyon Varlamov and the Avalanche.

The Ottawa/Arizona game does also provide an interesting match-up, as Cam's Anderson will take on Wes' Mike Smith (probable), which pits goalies on 5th and 4th place teams, respectively, against each other.  Cam goes into Saturday only 3 points behind Wes.

Wes' other goalie, Carey Price, and his Canadiens host Marc-Andre Fleury and the Penguins, in a goalie battle between 4th and 3rd place, as Wes chases down Clayton for the spot.  The gap there is only 1 point, as both teams try to track down Grant S. at the same time.

Clayton also leads going into Saturday for the Mover & Shaker and has both of his goalies projected to go, both Elliott and Fleury have each been mentioned, so far.  Wes, who follows, has both his goalies going in Smith and Price, as does Cam, who is in 3rd this week, has Hutchinson and Anderson.

The Basement Dweller race this change a bit on Friday night, as Stuart fell to the bottom, if only slightly, but will have no help from his goalies.  Tony, who climbed out on Friday, has a minor chance that Jaroslav Halak will play in back-to-back games, although it does seem doubtful.  Three other teams are 2 points up on Stuart, they belong to Dale C, Stacey C. and Mike, and there is only one goalie between them (Holtby for Stacey) going, which doesn't bode well for points being collected by these teams tonight.

Wow, that turned out to be a long preview, eh?

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

More Player Notes in the Draft (Jan 9)

Five games on the schedule tonight in the NHL and with a little extra time this afternoon, we'll go over the starting goalies and how they stack up in the pool.

Early on, it looks like there will be at least two non-pool goalies going, as Keith Kinkaid will get a rare start for the Devils and Al Montoya will take one for the Panthers.  There is also the possibility that Antti Raanta goes for the Blackhawks, since they played last night, although it hasn't been confirmed.

Clayton is now the leader for the Mover & Shaker today, but he has no goalies going, while Benson is next, also with no goalies and then Cam will go... also no goalies.  Scott is the closest team to the Mover & Shaker with a goalie going, Ben Bishop going for the Bolts.

Can Tony climb out of the Basement Dweller?  He'll need a shutout from Jaroslav Halak, as the Islanders take on the Devils, if he is going to have a shot at climbing out today.


An updated list of injuries can be found here.

Player Notes in the Draft (Jan 9)

Boston forward Loui Eriksson was the victim of a pretty wicked slash against the Penguins on Wednesday night, which caused him to have a bruised hand/wrist injury.  Eriksson missed the game on Thursday night, home to the Devils, and is only considered to be a day-to-day injury.  The Bruins next play on Saturday afternoon, away to Philadelphia, and Eriksson will likely be considered to be questionable for the contest.

Scott sits on the outside of the top 10, looking in, down in 12th place after Thursday night's action, but is only 5 points back of Stacey M. and if his team can find a way up, the race to 3rd place gets a little bit tighter and more exciting.

The Nashville Predators have had a dynamite blueline this season and smack dab in the middle of the fray is Ryan Ellis, who has been having a good year on his own.  Unfortunately, Ellis appears to have suffered a lower-body injury on Thursday night, which forced him out of the 3-2 overtime win over Dallas prematurely.  Indications are suggesting that it is a lower-body muscle injury, as he wasn't hit on the play where he left the game, so we'll wait to see what kind of tweak it may have been.  If it is a minor injury, he'll just be on the list day-to-day, but if the prognosis is worse, we'll update it on the blog.

Wilton's team has fallen off the pace for the second segment of the season a bit and an injury to one of his better blueliners will put a damper on his ability to keep up.  Wilton's team sits in 3rd in the segment, but is already 18 points back of 1st place.

On Thursday, the Flyers hosted the Capitals, trying to make up a little bit of ground on the wild card team and in planning to do so, the coaching staff wanted a little bit more grit on the blueline, opting to put Luke Schenn in the lineup and taking out Andrew MacDonald, making him into a healthy scratch.  The move must have helped a little bit, as the Flyers came away with a 3-2 overtime win.

The 28-year old defenseman hasn't been nearly as effective on the offensive side of the ledger, only picking up 9 points in 29 games, which hasn't helped Dale B. a great deal this season.  Dale now sits 19 points back of 10th place, back in 15th.

It sounds like the flu bug is making the rounds in the Vancouver Canucks dressing room, as Radim Vrbata had it earlier in the week and returned to action on Thursday, while Christopher Higgins was next on the list and missed out on Thursday's contest against the Florida Panthers.  On the plus side, it would seem that the bug isn't as devastating as some of the illnesses we've seen in the league this year and it should only keep Higgins out for the one game, likely being back for the weekend.

Not good news for Mike, who is falling into the depths of the basement and is one of the contenders for the Basement Dweller on the Newsletter this weekend, now sitting with only 6 points this week.  Mike has yet to have the pleasure of being on the Newsletter this season, but likely doesn't want to be in the infamous section.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

Upper-Body Injury Extends Stay on Shelf for Franzen

One of the all-time favourites on the Injury Prone List, Detroit's Johan Franzen, is making another appearance on the Injured Reserve, which started on Thursday morning, likely retroactive to the game on Tuesday against the Oilers.  Franzen is reportedly dealing with an upper-body injury after taking a big hit in the 3rd period, but managed to finish the game.

Some speculation is that Franzen may be dealing with a concussion and his symptoms didn't really appear until after the game, which has been seen in a couple of cases already this season.  This has not been confirmed, but it does sound awfully plausible.

The 35-year old Franzen has appeared in 33 games for the Red Wings this season, scoring 7 goals and 15 assists and after Thursday night's games, he was ranked 167th overall in pool scoring.

This is now the second forward to hit the Injured Reserve for Grant S. in the last few days, as his team is going through a bit of a rough patch in the season.  After the 10 games on the NHL schedule, his cushion over top of 3rd place is 37 points, but with all of these injuries, that could dry up before too long.

Grant now has 14 projected games to be played over the next three days and has picked up 16 points with 17 skater games and two goalie starts.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

Kuemper Out At Least a Week

An injury in practice has sidelined Minnesota Wild goalie, Darcy Kuemper, for at least a week. The injury is considered to be one to his lower-body, although there are no concrete details on the injury itself. Kuemper has been placed on the Injured Reserve and the team called up John Curry to come back-up Niklas Backstrom, while Kuemper is on the shelf.

It's hard to say what will be said or done after the week long stint on the IR, but it sounds like Kuemper is still the number one guy going forward.

The 24-year old keeper has appeared in 28 games for the Wild this season, winning 13 games and registering 3 shutouts for 32 points this season.  That's good enough for 1.3 points for every 60 minutes on the ice and he was ranked 57th overall in pool scoring, going into tonight's action.

This is a pretty big hit to Stacey M., who is still sitting on the edge of the 3rd place race with her 10th place team.  Her team is now 18 points back of 3rd place, but the way that the race has been going these days, there are a number of teams who can move up the standings with a hot team.  Unfortunately, being without your best goalie will likely keep any team from moving up too quickly.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

Preds Add Neal to the IR

Already having missed a few games with a lower-body injury, the Nashville Predators have decided to open up a roster spot by adding James Neal to the Injured Reserve.  It looks as though Neal should be eligible to return in the next few days, assuming he's okay to do so, but in the meantime, the Predators will give Miikka Salomaki another spin with the big club.

Neal is still thought to be day-to-day, since there is no timetable given to his return, but he was removed from the active roster for the game against the Dallas Stars on Thursday night.

Neal was acquired by the Predators from the Penguins in the off-season and has been good for Nashville, scoring 13 goals and 10 assists in 35 games with the club. He went into tonight's action in 138th overall in pool scoring, maybe not quite as high as he'd want to be, but his season has been hampered by injuries.

Grant S. has been enjoying his season, at the very least, as Neal has chimed in well for his team, but he is falling behind expectations, having been picked 79th overall in the 4th round.  If this injury starts to become a long-term issue, Grant may see some issues with the buffer between him in 2nd and whoever is sitting in 3rd, as the battle for the spot below him is really ramping up.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

Flames Pair to the IR

After the Flames played the Red Wings on Wednesday night, we knew that goalie Karri Ramo was going to be in tough shape after being on the wrong end of a knee-to-head collision with teammate Raphael Diaz in the 2nd period. Ramo had to be helped off the ice, albeit on his feet, leaving the game and not returning.  Diaz, on the other hand, was just fine after the collision.

The second injury belongs to forward Josh Jooris, who had just returned from a wrist injury, but this one is a little bit more mysterious.  There was no confirmation of when or where Jooris was hurt, possibly aggravating his previous injury that forced him to miss some time, it is just unclear.

Nevertheless, both players have been placed on the Injured Reserve, both to miss at least the next week's worth of action and possibly more.  Ramo's is an upper-body injury, officially, while Jooris' is still undisclosed.

Ramo has been good for Leo this season, picking up 20 points in his limited action, thanks to 8 wins and 3 shutouts, ranking 198th overall in pool scoring.  Jooris was a Waiver Draft pick-up for Wyllie this year and thanks to the injuries, he's only played in 10 games and picked up a goal and an assist in that time.  He's nowhere near as hot as he was when Wyllie had picked him up.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

More Player Notes in the Draft (Jan 8)

With news that Drew Stafford is ready to come back to the Buffalo Sabres tonight, facing off in Carolina, it has occurred to me that he likely wasn't placed on the Injured Reserve, as one report suggested, rather, he was likely made into a non-roster player.  Some reports out there, right?

Stafford will be activated for the game tonight and his projected games will return to Benson's totals for the week.  Benson is quickly moving up the standings, now sitting in 20th and only 5 points back of 18th.

Speaking of non-roster players, Zach Parise has now been moved to this designation, following the passing of his father, former NHL'er J.P. Parise.  Zach had already been granted a leave of absence from the team to be with his ailing father and now with his passing, there will be some time needed for all the proceedings.  He will be clear to return, when he is deemed ready to go.

Grant K. is already having a tough time gathering skater games this week, as his team has only seen eight games through the first three nights of the week, but his team has had 6 points in those games, so at least his team is producing with what they have.

In a less-than-busy week, a 10-game night has a lot going on.  Tonight's games should play on a number of different story lines, which keep this pool rather interesting.

In the Mover & Shaker race, Cam leads the way and he has Craig Anderson starting for the Sens.  He is being chased by Benson, who has Semyon Varlamov going for the Avalanche and Kari Lehtonen going for the Stars, Dale B., who goes goalie-less, and Wes, who has Mike Smith going for the Coyotes.

For the Basement Dweller, Tony still hasn't seen a point yet this week and he won't see any from his goalies tonight, as he is goalie-less again.  Stuart only has 1 point this week, but he has Roberto Luongo going for the Panthers tonight.

Other than Benson, Allan, Brian and Grant S. each have two goalie going tonight.

Two non-pool goalies are projected to start tonight: Cam Talbot of the Rangers and Niklas Svedberg of the Bruins.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

Player Notes in the Draft (Jan 8)

The Calgary Flames welcomed back forward Mikael Backlund from injury on Wednesday night against Detroit, as the Swedish pivot missed 29 games with an abdominal injury, which required surgery. His presence was immediately felt, picking up a goal and an assist in the 3-2 loss.  Also returning to the lineup from being a healthy scratch was forward Mason Raymond, who also had an impact, opening the scoring with a goal.

Coming out of the lineup, as a late scratch, was Jiri Hudler, who's wife was going into labour at game time and he was forced to miss the contest against his former team.  He should be good to go when the Flames play next, Friday at home to Florida.

This was all big news for the bottom of the standings, as 23rd place Wyllie had Backlund return, 19th place Leo had Raymond return and 18th place Mike had Hudler out for a game.  There wasn't much of an impact on the money here at all.

An upper-body injury cost Red Wings forward Johan Franzen the game against the Flames on Wednesday night.  Speculation suggests that Franzen may have been hurt the night before in Edmonton, after taking a hit in the 3rd period, but he did manage to finish the game, so there isn't a lot of clarity about what the injury could be or how long he could be out for.  For now, he'll be listed as out day-to-day and that's the way it will be for the time being.

This injury has an impact on a team that's in the money, but I don't think this will have much of an effect on Grant S.'s chances of losing out on 2nd place for now and he really doesn't have a great chance of catching 1st at the moment either.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

Player Notes in the Draft (Jan 7)

The Buffalo Sabres were without forward Drew Stafford on Tuesday night, when they took on the Devils (a 4-1 loss), due to the arrival of his first kid.  The most interesting point of note here is that the team has put him on the Injured Reserve for personal reasons, which took him right off the roster and should make him ineligible to play for a week, which would take him out of action until about the 13th of January, when the Sabres host the Red Wings.

There is a chance that Stafford may need that week, we wouldn't exactly know what his situation is, but if it warranted a move to the IR, then Benson loses out on some projected games and his pool team will be shorthanded until Week Fifteen.  He should manage just fine though, as his team got off to a rocking start, leading the pool with 12 points.

Also in need of some personal time, Minnesota's Zach Parise, as his father is not doing so well and the team granted the player's wish to be by his side in some dire moments.  It's an unfortunate set of circumstances for anyone to be out of their team's lineup, but that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.  There's no word as to how much time Parise will need, but there is little doubt that the Wild will request his services before he is ready to return.

This isn't great news for Grant K. either, who hasn't gotten off to a good start this week, having only two skater games played and only 1 point picked up in the process.  His team has dropped down from 12th to 13th, only a couple days after his team finished dropping down a spot the week before.

The Vancouver Canucks made Radim Vrbata into a late scratch, just before their home game against the Islanders on Tuesday night.  Vrbata came down with some kind of a bug and that's what forced his absence for the team's 3-2 win.  Vrbata is listed as out day-to-day and if it is only a cold or mild flu bug, he should be considered to be probable for Thursday game, hosting the Panthers.

Remind me again how Benson leads the weekly scoring through Tuesday night, while he had two players join the injury list again?  Yes, this was another body missing from Benson's lineup, as he continues to lead the way for the Jordan bobblehead for the least amount of skater games played.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

Player Notes in the Draft (Jan 6)

Since there wasn't any new news about players from Monday night's only game, I had to wait for something to happen on Tuesday morning. Sure enough, the Islanders activated Michael Grabner from the Injured Reserve, by placing defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky on the IR.  Grabner is coming back from a lower-body injury and he'll come in, taking the place of Josh Bailey, who will come out as a healthy scratch.

What's good for some, may not be good for others, as Clayton will get a body back in his lineup, while Scott will have one come out.  Scott is 21 points behind Clayton in the standings, so this lineup change for the Islanders will not suit his needs at all.

Ten games going on the NHL schedule on Tuesday night and for a while this morning, it looked like we were going to have all 20 goalies collecting minutes for the pool, but that didn't turn out to be the case in the end.

Most of the goaltending decisions have been made and they've been published and the only one we don't know for sure is in San Jose, where we have both goalies anyways. For now, it looks like Alex Stalock should be getting the second half of back-to-back nights, but the only one to say for sure is the Sharks coaching staff.

The only non-pool starter tonight will be Eddie Lack, as he gets the call for the Canucks against the Islanders.  Stuart dropped Lack at the Waiver Draft, so he won't count towards our numbers.

As for notable starters, Viktor Fasth will go for Edmonton against the Red Wings tonight, as he'll go against Jimmy Howard.  Brian Elliott will also get his second start since returning from injury, as St. Louis will take on Mike Smith and the Coyotes in the desert tonight.

Benson, Wilton and Wes are three teams that are confirmed to have both of their goalies going and if Stalock goes for the Sharks, that would mean Scott has both of his going as well.  If the Sharks turn to Niemi on back-to-back nights, Allan will be the fourth team to have both of his goalies going.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

Knee Surgery for Gudas

The Tampa Bay Lightning have been without defenseman Radko Gudas for a little while, as he was listed as out day-to-day with a lower-body injury. As it turns out, the lower-body injury is a knee injury and the 24-year old Czech is going to undergo arthroscopic knee surgery on Tuesday, which will keep him out of the line-up for a few weeks.

UPDATE (Jan 6): Did I say weeks?  I meant months.  The Lightning updated Gudas' status on Tuesday, saying that he is expected to be out of action for the next four months, which should end his regular season.

Last season, Gudas had 22 points for the Bolts, which led +Brenda & Seward to believe that he would be a pretty good pick-up this year in the draft, but that hasn't been the case at all.  In 31 games for Tampa this year, Gudas has 2 goals and 3 assists and is pretty far from his scoring pace of a season ago.

Thankfully for the second pool duo, they haven't been relying on Gudas and his offense, as they stormed up the standings over the last few weeks, as they draw closer to the top 10 and continue to lead in the second segment.  Going into Week Fourteen, the duo start in 11th place, 4 points out of the top 10, which seemed somewhat unlikely when they finished Week Nine in 20th spot.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.