Briere Out 4 Weeks

You would think the loss of Daniel Briere from the Flyers line-up would hurt the team significantly, but just ask the Devils on Friday night. The Flyers won the game, 6-3, and now they will have Briere out of their line-up for a month with a torn abdominal muscle.

The loss of Briere will be a big loss to Don in the Draft and he won't be able to help any Box 18 owners in the Sheet.

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Allen Has Knee Surgery

The Panthers received some bad news today, as an already injured Bryan Allen has undergone surgery on his knee, which will keep him out of the line-up for an indefinite period of time. Allen played in the first two games of the season before sitting out and that will be the extent of his pool value for the near future.

On the Sheet, Allen is in Box 30. The Panthers are already without Bryan McCabe on the blueline. It could be tough times for Florida, before it's all said and done.

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Penguins Sit Gill

The Penguins held out defenseman Hal Gill from their game against the Hurricanes on Thursday night, because of what the team describes as an undisclosed injury. So really, they don't describe it as anything, except for an injury. There was some speculation that he would be held out of the line-up this week and it definitely came to fruition.

There was no indication of how long he'll be out of the line-up, but if it's undisclosed, you could suggest that maybe he'll only be out for a game or two and they don't want their opponents to know what he had for when he immediately comes back. The team is already short of a veteran presence on the blueline and losing Gill is another blow to their team.

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Coyotes Scratch Reinprecht?

Going somewhat under the radar on Thursday night, Coyotes forward Steve Reinprecht, who is listed in Box 4 on the Sheet, was scratched from the line-up against Washington. There was no indication of injury in the game recap of their game against the Caps or mention of an injury in their recap against Montreal last week. Until further notice, Reinprecht could very well be in the Great One's doghouse.

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Predators Scratch Two

The Nashville Predators couldn't hold onto a 3-goal lead against the Flames on Thursday night, losing 5-3. The coaching staff didn't dress forward Radek Bonk or defenseman Ville Koistinen in the game, opting to scratch them to the press box instead. Both players are considered more defensive, which could have been beneficial to the team in the third period. Both players are available on the Selection Sheet, but if neither of them have a solid role against one of the better Western Conference teams, they might not have much value in the pool at all.

On the plus side, both Jason Arnott and Nick Tarnasky returned to the Pred's line-up last night. Arnott, a Draft pick of John B., did make an early impact in the game, registering a goal, but couldn't help his team pull out the win in the end.

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Oilers Without Pisani

The Oilers were without forward Fernando Pisani on Thursday night against the Avalanche. Pisani, a Box 8 forward, is listed as out day-to-day with a back injury. There was no word on whether or not he'll be available for the team against Vancouver on Saturday night.

The team did receive some good news, as Sheldon Souray did return to the line-up and he registered a point in the game against Colorado. Good news for Dale C. in the Draft and the Sheet owners that have him in Box 11.

Ducks Sign Hedican

The Ducks made another move on Thursday, filling a gap on the blueline with some veteran help. Bret Hedican signed a 1-year deal with Anaheim, worth approximately $870,000, which keeps the Ducks in line underneath the salary cap ceiling.

Hedican, 38, had made the decision to only sign with a club on the West Coast, as that has where he has settled down with his family. With the Ducks sending Ken Klee down to the minors, it opened up some space, both on the roster and under the cap for Hedican to sign.

Demitra Out 4 Weeks

The Canucks received some bad news today, as Pavol Demitra will be lost to the team for the next four weeks, thanks to his rib cartilage injury. An MRI conducted showed that some of the cartilage was fractured, causing much discomfort in Demitra.

The next four weeks could cost Demitra upwards of 13 more games this season. He has been known as somewhat of an injury-risk, since he hasn't been 100% for a full season in a few years.

This is Dennis' second significant bit of player news today, this one being far more significant than the previous. Demitra also holds a spot in Box 3 on the Sheet and was taken once or twice, if I'm not mistaken.

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Blake To Sit

A surprise move by the Leafs will see forward Jason Blake in the press box, instead of the fourth line, where he was rumoured to end up only days ago. Coach Ron Wilson has been publicly disappointed with his veteran forwards and Blake has been the focal point of much of the public dismay.

This season, Blake has 3 points (1G, 2A) in 6 games with the Leafs this year. The team hasn't been very productive as a whole, but there is a lot of pressure put on the scoring veterans of the club to lead by example. Blake's benching will hopefully spark the team and help them get past the Bruins tonight, but it won't help his fantasy value tonight for Dennis in the Draft.

Could trade rumours be on the horizon?

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Thursday's Injury Update

The biggest injury news over the last couple days saw Buffalo defenseman, Craig Rivet, go under the knife for some arthroscopic knee surgery, which will keep him out of the line-up for the next couple weeks. The new Sabres captain is a Draft pick of Don's, who hasn't seen a great deal of injury problems yet this season and two weeks is a pretty kind result for knee surgery.

On Tuesday, the Ducks were without their top scorer, Ryan Getzlaf, against the Maple Leafs. Getzlaf was reportedly out with a mouth injury/tooth problem. It's quite obviously a day-to-day issue and John B., Getzlaf's pool owner, shouldn't worry too much about him being out for too long.

The Blue Jackets were without Box 7 forward, Fredrik Modin, for their game against the Canucks on Tuesday. Modin sat out of the game with a groin injury, which will keep him out on a day-to-day basis for the time being.

The Washington Capitals have been trying to shuffle their lines and some of their younger players in order to find some sort of stability in their line-up. On Tuesday, Eric Fehr, Box 25 forward, found himself in the press box for the game against Calgary. There is a good chance that he'll return to the line-up soon, as the experiment for depth players should continue.

On Wednesday night, Simon Gagne was out of the line-up thanks to a bout of the flu. Gagne, a popular pick in the Sheet pool and a pick of Larry's in the Draft, shouldn't miss more than the game on Wednesday night and should be good to go for the weekend.

Box 14 defenseman, Steve Staios, sat out of the Oilers' game against the Blackhawks on Wednesday night, as he went back to Edmonton during the day to deal with a family issue. There was no immediate word on wheter or not he'll be available for their next game or not.

Hawks Send Down Skille

Box 9 forward, Jack Skille, has been sent down to the minors by the Blackhawks on Tuesday, as they recalled non-pool forward, Troy Brouwer, to take his place in the line-up.

Skille was thought to be one of the good up-and-coming youngsters on the Blackhawks, but he hasn't seem to pull any of that potential through in his first six games of the season, only registering one goal.

I do believe there has been a selection or two used on Skille in the pool, but panic should not ensue just yet, as he is very close to earning a full-time job, he might need to get his confidence back up in the AHL before continuing on in his NHL career. He should be called back up sooner, rather than later.

Ducks Waive Klee to Minors

Well, I thought I would put two action buttons on this post, it sort of makes sense. The Ducks waived Ken Klee on Tuesday, in order to send him down to the minor affiliate in Iowa. If Klee clears on Wednesday, he will make the trip to the minors and if he doesn't clear, he'll be a member of a brand new team.

Klee was acquired in the deal that saw Mathieu Schneider be moved to Atlanta, so the team could be clear of the salary cap ceiling. In three games with the Ducks, Klee had yet to register a point this season.

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Wellwood Called Up

Thanks to the waiver claim of Matt Pettinger this morning by the Lightning, the Canucks have had to recall a couple of other forwards to help fill some gaps in their line-up, after the injury-filled game in Chicago on Sunday.

The Canucks recalled both Kyle Wellwood and Jason Krog from Manitoba on Tuesday before their game against Columbus. Wellwood, who was thought to be down in the minors for a longer period of time for conditioning, will get another chance to work hard and earn a spot again with the big club. Wellwood, a Box 9 player on the Sheet, was dropped already on one Sheet team, thinking just about the same thing. Krog, on the other hand, was the AHL's top player last season and will also try and earn some stripes with the big club.

There hasn't been any indication on where these two players might line-up with the team quite yet, although one of the two will have to suit up on the second line, likely taking Pavol Demitra's spot after suffering a rib injury. Darcy Hordichuk (knee) should be the other forward out of the line-up for the squad.

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Blues Claim Koci

It could be the waiver wire shuffle today, as the St. Louis Blues have claimed defenseman David Koci from the Lightning, after the Lightning did a claim of their own. Actually, the chain of events, chronilogically, hasn't been truly determined for who was a reaction to what. Nevertheless, this is a straight waiver claim, as Koci was in the process of being sent down to the minors.

This has no fantasy value in my pools.

Lightning Claim Pettinger

The Lightning were in the player movement business again on Tuesday, picking up Matt Pettinger from the Canucks, who were trying to bring him up on re-entry waivers to likely fill a gap left behind by Pavol Demitra and his rib injury.

Pettinger played in 76 games for the Canucks and tallied 13 points last season. The Lightning and Canucks will now split his $1 million salary cap hit for the year. The Lightning have been hit with some injuries as well, so it will be interesting to see how Pettinger will fit into the system right away, since if he gets sent back down to the minors, he'll have to clear waivers again, which the Canucks will have first right of re-acquiring him.

Smyth Coming Back?

The Colorado Avalanche have gotten off to a strong scoring start, scoring 24 goals in their first six games of the season. Scoring wasn't necessarily going to be an issue with the Avalanche, especially if the team was to remain healthy for the better part of the year.

One player guilty of being unhealthy over the last few seasons has been Ryan Smyth. He hasn't played a full 82-game season in the NHL in four years and has struggled to be consistent on the scoresheet.

Smyth has gotten off to a good start to his season, having four goals and two assists in the first six games with the Avs, putting him on a point-per-game pace. In the Draft, he was taken in the ninth round, 152nd overall by Don, and he is quickly emerging has a huge bargain. If he could finish the season with 82 points in 82 games, Smyth would generally be considered a second to third round pick in the draft, but thanks to his inconsistencies, no one wanted to pick him up right away.

He isn't only beneficial to himself either. Ryan Smyth has done wonders for the rest of his teammates as well in the early part of the season. With his presence in the line-up, the opposition does have a hard time sending out a full compliment of defense against any one certain line from Colorado. This opens up the gate for teammates on other lines to be successful and it has seemingly worked already. Paul Statsny, Joe Sakic and Milan Hejduk have all enjoyed successful starts to their seasons as well and if the Avalanche can get their goaltending up to par, they will have a very competitive team.

Of course, we are only six games into the long season and there is still a lot of bone-crushing, punishing hockey left to be played. Smyth does embody a substantial risk in fantasy pools, but in the ninth round, he shouldn't be considered a bust, even if he misses ten games in the season.

Week Three Newsletter

At last, we've had our first full week of hockey and boy, oh boy... was it ever entertaining. The season is in full swing and you know what that means?!? Trades in the Sheet pool. Yes, it's true, we're three weeks into the pool season and we're already seeing our first trade of the year. Neil, currently sitting in 20th spot in the Sheet standings, has made the first trade of the year. He has decided to drop Henrik Zetterberg in Box 2, who has sat out the last few games for Detroit with a groin problem and he picked up Paul Statsny in Colorado to replace him. Statsny has been playing quite well to start the season with the Avalanche, but eyebrows will be raised, wondering if this is a good long-term move. Sure, Statsny will make his Box 2 selection a little more unique, but will he have staying power over one of Detroit's top scorers? I suppose time will tell, but we can easily scoff at how silly this move is right now.

Will this early move spark some other moves? Remember, if you want to make a trade on your Sheet team, please send an e-mail to me to request the move. You do have seven trades through the year, so be sure to maximize your points potential. All trades for the upcoming week need to be in by puck drop on the Monday of the new week to be eligible for that week's points. Be sure to check out the injury page to see if you need to make any moves.

Poll Question
Last week, I asked you of the top five players in pool scoring, who would be making the biggest push for the best season in pool scoring. Well, it was a little bit of a loaded question, as only two of the five players were really qualified to do it all year. It was those same two players that took home half of the votes each. Both Roberto Luongo and Henrik Lundqvist took 4 of the 8 votes each to lead the poll, which didn't have too much merit on the season anyways. I was just having trouble thinking of a good topic for a poll. It's nice to see that I'm back to the usual amount of votes for a poll now anyways.

This week's question, who has been the biggest surprise with zero points, so far this year. Joffrey Lupul in Philadelphia, Ed Jovanovski in Phoenix, Steven Stamkos in Tampa Bay or Sam Gagner in Edmonton.

This week, we had a tie in the largest amount of points in the week, but only one could be our Mover & Shaker for Week Three. The tie-breaker is this case was the number of positions moved. So, for Week Four, our winner is Larry! His team managed to put up 38 points in the week, moving him up from 12th spot to 4th... just like that. For the weekly win, Larry will come away with a 2009 O-Pee-Chee Mike Green card, which has the retro design of the 1979-1980 OPC set. A very cool looking card, which is part of a rare set found in this year's cases.

Larry is yet to see any action from three of his roster players, so far this year, but the other eleven have been pretty good for him so far. His top players in the week were: Niklas Backstrom (8 points), Patrick Sharp (7), Simon Gagne (4), Nicklas Lidstrom (4) and Dan Ellis (4).

On the Sheet, we had four teams crack the 80-point barrier, all of them should have been moving on up. Our M&S for the Sheet had 85 points in Week Three and managed to move up to third place in the Standings, one of the five paying spots in the pool. Dan W. had a great week from Evgeni Malkin (7 points), Sidney Crosby (6), Alex Semin (6), Martin Brodeur (6) and Michael Nylander (5). Another solid week like that (or 25) will only help his chances at the big money for the year.

Our Basement Dweller in the Draft fell from 10th to last with a week of only 16 points... last year's big money winner, Chris. Chris had six of his 14 players without points in Week Three. If it wasn't for Sidney Crosby picking up 6 points in the week, Chris would have been up the creek without a paddle to start the season. Filip Kuba in Ottawa was the only other notable player on his team, pickin up three more assists.

Dropping big places in the Sheet pool in Week Three was Ernest, who went down from 15th spot in Week Two down to 39th; a pool-high 24 spots dropped. He only managed to pick up 51 points in the week, which wasn't the lowest, but the lowest among all of his peers in the area of the Standings. Thankfully, it's still pretty early in the year and there won't be too much worry about making those spots up. On his team, there were 10 players with zero points, which doesn't help anyone's chances out... except for being the Basement Dweller.

To start the season, we had a pair of goaltenders claim the Player of the Week award, which shouldn't come as a surprise, but when there is two players tied for the honour for Week Three and one is a skater, the other is a goalie... it's usually best to spice things up a bit and go with the skater. That being said, this week's Player of the Week is Thomas Vanek of the Sabres, who finished with 8 points.

Vanek played in four games during the week and was very productive in each one. On Monday on Long Island, Vanek started his week with a pair of goals. Wednesday in the Big Apple, he added yet another two goals. Friday, hosting the Canucks, he had a goal and two assists. Finally, on Saturday in Atlanta, he scored another goal. That's six goals and two assists through the week, which should be unanimous for the selection and should earn him one of the NHL's three stars of the week.

Chris Drury, usually quite the offensive force, only has 1 point in 8 games so far this season. Thankfully, he does bring a very sound defensive game to the team, so he won't be punished by sitting out, because he is valuable in both ends of the ice. Drury was picked by Don in the seventh round of the Draft, which isn't too high, so he isn't being a big anchor for Don in Standings.

Other News and Notes

Received in the trade from Atlanta, Ken Klee was going to be a good fifth or sixth defenseman for the Ducks, but on Friday night, he was in the press box for a game. Klee is in Box 29, in the East, as he was moved after the Sheet was released.

The Hurricanes have missed Tuomo Ruutu through the weekend with a bit of a groin problem. He missed out on Friday night's game with the injury and WHAT ABOUT SUNDAY.

The Blue Jackets ran into some injury trouble this past week. Both defenseman Christian Backman and goaltender Pascal Leclaire missed out on the action on Saturday night with injuries. Backman, a pick of Ryan in the Draft, was kept out of the line-up thanks to a lower body injury. Leclaire, a pick of Derek in the Draft, suffered a hand injury in his last start in the week and was kept out of the line-up on Saturday because of it.

The Blackhawks scratched Box 7 forward Craig Adams from the line-up on Saturday night and Sunday evening. New coach, Joel Quennville, hasn't found a spot for Adams in his first couple games of his season.

The Red Wings are running into some minor injury troubles these days as well. Brad Stuart, a pick of Clayton in the Draft, was kept out of the game against the Rangers, thanks to a knee injury, that will keep him out on a day-to-day basis.

The Oilers beat the Flames twice in a weekend set and they did it without Sheldon Souray and Sam Gagner in the second game. Souray was out with a knee injury and Gagner's injury was not disclosed, but was still out. Souray is a pick of Dale C. in the Draft and Dennis has pool ownership on Gagner.

In one of the more brutal hits of this early season, Andrei Kostitsyn took the worst of a collision with Coyotes defenseman Kurt Sauer. The early diagnosis was that Kostitsyn has suffered a head injury and his return to the line-up is still uncertain. It looks like a long-term injury, so Ryan shouldn't be holding his breath here.

Box 29 defenseman, Lasse Kukkonen, was a scratch for the Flyers on Saturday night. He wasn't a very popular selection on the Sheet, but it just should be known... just in case someone wants to take a chance on him.

The Sharks were without stand-out forward, Milan Michalek, through their weekend games with an upper body injury. Michalek's presence is usually felt offensively, but the team didn't do too badly without him. Michalek was picked by John P. in the Draft, who is currently running in the top section of the Standings.

Blues' rookie prospect, Patrik Berglund, was scratched from the St. Louis line-up on the weekend, because of an apparent shoulder injury that he suffered on Thursday night against Chicago. Berglund is considered to be out day-to-day. Berglund has had a good start to the season, scoring 3 points in 4 games.

As Chris got back one Lightning player in Paul Ranger, he lost another one in Radim Vrbata to the press box. Vrbata was not inserted into the line-up on Saturday night against the Wild. Vrbata has struggled this season, not registering a point in his first four games of the season.

A little bit of musical chairs going on in Toronto on the blueline, as Mike Van Ryn was a healthy scratch against the Penguins on Saturday night. The Leafs' coaching staff has not been terribly impressed with some of the veteran talent on the team and it looks like Van Ryn could be one of those guys. Since he's a Leaf, he wasn't too valuable for the Draft and he's just a Sheet player this year.

News on Kyle Wellwood... he has been sent to the minors after clearing waivers this weekend. If Wellwood can get his health back up to snuff, he could very well make his way back to the Canucks and still make somewhat of an impact. He is also only a Sheet player this year, as there wasn't enough buzz around him for the Draft.

The Canucks could escape the injury bug on Sunday, losing three players to injury against the Blackhawks. Pavol Demitra (ribs), Darcy Hordichuk (lower body) and Sami Salo (groin) all left the game and didn't return. The team did have Kevin Bieksa return to the line-up, but it wasn't enough to earn the win.

Missing from the Capitals' line-up on the weekend was defenseman Tom Poti, who hasn't been listed with an injury, so he'll be listed as a healthy scratch. Poti has 2 assists in the team's 4 games this year, so it does look as though it could be an injury keeping him out of the line-up. A status update will come when there is one.

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Hockey Night in Canada

An all-Canadian Hockey Night in Canada sees the Battle of Ontario in the first half of the doubleheader, while Vancouver will host Edmonton in the second half. The first half should be a pretty tight affair, if the Leafs can hang on to their defensive positioning against a very offensive powerhouse from Ottawa. The Canucks will finally return home from their six game road trip to host the young Oilers team that gets more exciting as the weeks go by.