Friday Night Notes

The Oilers decided to scratch Robert Nilsson again on Friday night, as the team took on the Ducks. Nilsson has been in and out of the coaching staff's doghouse in the second half of the season. I would imagine that Nilsson would figure back into the Oilers' line-up on the weekend.

The Capitals were hit by the flu bug on Friday night, as Alexander Semin didn't dress for the game against the Lightning. The Capitals, who have already clinched a playoff spot, got to call up a couple of their AHL players to fill some gaps on Friday and give them a shot at some playing time.

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Tonight's Preview

It was another plus night for the lead on Thursday, as Clayton's team managed to increase the lead from 13 points to 16, thanks to the huge shutout by Steve Mason against the Flames. John managed to also snake 4 points from that game with Kristian Huselius notching 4 assists in the 5-0 win. Peter managed to pull 3 more points back on Clayton, thanks in large part to Pekka Rinne's win, Marty Turco's shutout loss (1-0 in the shootout) and Ales Hemsky have 2 points. Marcus, Benson and Jeremy all didn't fare so well on Thursday night, dropping points from the lead and their current positions. Benson lost his third place spot and dropped to fifth, now 4 points out of the money.

Friday has some potential for points again, but not as much as Thursday.

Games

Clayton 710 points

Marcus -16 from lead

John B. -17 from lead

Peter -17 from lead

Benson -21 from lead

Jeremy -26 from lead

TAM/WAS

None

None

Vaclav Prospal, F

None

Alex Ovechkin, F

Martin St. Louis, F

TOR/BUF

Jason Pominville, F

None

None

Alex Ponikarovsky, F

None

Derek Roy, F

Ryan Miller, G

Pavel Kubina, D

NYI/DET

None

Pavel Datsyuk, F

None

None

Mark Streit, D

None

Jiri Hudler, F

Johan Franzen, F

Ty Conklin, G

NJD/CHI

Zach Parise, F

Martin Havlat, F

Duncan Keith, D

Patrik Elias, F

Jamie Langenbrunner, F

Nikolai Khabibulin, G

Cristobel Huet, G

Brian Gionta, F

VAN/COL

Kevin Bieksa, D

None

None

None

Marek Svatos, F

None

Mattias Ohlund, D

Sami Salo, D

EDM/ANA

None

None

Ryan Getzlaf, F

Ales Hemsky, F

None

None

Scott Niedermayer, D

In goal for Detroit, Chris Osgood will get the start, keeping Benson away from another start for Ty Conklin, which is bad news for him. Ryan Miller is set to return tonight for Buffalo. Good news for Jeremy. As of the timing of this post, the starter for Chicago was still unclear, but the odds are pointing to Nikolai Khabibulin for tonight, taking another start away from Cristobel Huet and Marcus.

Otherwise, it has been a pretty slow week for scoring in the pool, as we've only seen 246 points accumulated thus far and it's only another 6-game schedule tonight.

Pool Notes From Thursday Night

The Thrashers know this situation all too well. Box 31 goalie, Kari Lehtonen, left the game after the first period on Thursday night with an upper body injury. The oft-injured goalie was crashed into midway through the period and managed to play through until the period's end, not to return. Still no word on the severity of the injury yet.

Scary moment for Dallas against the Kings, as Trevor Daley was knocked out of the game after being run head first into the boards. Daley left the game with an upper body injury as well, but managed to skate off the ice under his own power, which is good news for the type of hit that it was. The Box 14 defenseman will be re-evaluated before this weekend's play. Also, Fabian Brunnstrom did not dress for the Stars, as he was a healthy scratch.

The Canadiens still appear to be dealing with the flu bug this season, as Andrei Kostitsyn missed last night's game against the Lightning with an illness. The only word out of Habs camp is that he is under the weather and that he is day-to-day for now. Montreal goes again on Saturday, at home to Buffalo.

The revolving door continues in Phoenix. On Thursday night, pool players, Steve Reinprecht and David Hale, were both in the press box for the game against the Oilers. Making his way back into the line-up was Keith Yandle. Phoenix is in San Jose on Saturday night and I would assume there will be some more shuffling around in the line-up.

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Preview of Thursday Night's Draft Action

The gaps have widen a little more after last night's action, instead of possibly closing, which was seemingly going to happen with the way some of the teams entered the evening. No, the lead stretched open another 3 points to 13, Benson and John remained tied for third, losing 4 points on the leader, while Peter and Jeremy each lost a point on the leader, but gained on third place by 3 points. The race is far from over and we are just about to hit a heavy night of action, as eight games are on the docket and they carry a lot of top six team players.

Games

Clayton 705 points

Marcus -13 from lead

Benson -18 from lead

John B. -18 from lead

Peter -20 from lead

Jeremy -23 from lead

FLA/PHI

Mike Richards, F

None

Martin Biron, G

None

Nathan Horton, F

David Booth, F

Matt Carle, D

NYR/ATL

Dan Girardi, D

Nik Antropov, F

Todd White, F

Michal Rozsival, D

None

None

CAL/CBJ

Steve Mason, G

Mike Cammalleri, F

Fedor Tyutin, D

Kristian Huselius, F

None

Jarome Iginla, F

Curtis Glencross, F

Todd Bertuzzi, F

Daymond Langkow, F

Mike Commodore, D

TAM/MTL

Alex Kovalev, F

Roman Hamrlik, D

None

Vaclav Prospal, F

None

Martin St. Louis, F

SAN/NAS

Joe Thornton, F

J-P Dumont, F

Dan Hamhuis, D

Evgeni Nabokov, G

Pekka Rinne, G

Shea Weber, D

Jason Arnott, F

Martin Erat, F

VAN/STL

Kevin Bieksa, D

None

None

Keith Tkachuk, F

None

None

Mattias Ohlund, D

Manny Legace, G

Sami Salo, D

LOS/DAL

Dustin Brown, F

Kyle Quincey, D

Mike Ribeiro, F

Anze Kopitar, F

Marty Turco, G

Alex Frolov, F

Drew Doughty, D

EDM/PHO

None

Ed Jovanovski, D

None

None

Ales Hemsky, F

Keith Yandle, D

Not counting the injured or unavailable players, we have 39 players on the ice, who could have an effect on how the top six plays out. Topping the list of active players tonight is Clayton's team, who has 9 players going, followed by Peter who has 7. Benson on the other hand, will have yet another challenge put upon his team to stay in third, as he only has 4 active player going tonight, while Jeremy only has 5 active players and could find himself further back of the pack.

The marquee match-up of the evening is the Calgary/Columbus game, where 8 players from 5 of the 6 teams will all mash it up. Steve Mason is the only goalie in the top six that will be playing in this game and a win for him could propel Clayton just a little bit further.

The San Jose/Nashville game also should be an interesting one, as every member of the top six has at least a player going in the game, Peter has two. There is a goaltending match-up, as fourth place, John, has Evgeni Nabokov and fifth place, Peter, has Pekka Rinne, but there is a chance that Brian Boucher would get the start for San Jose, as Nabokov played last night in Chicago.

Legwand Out Tonight

After taking a puck to the face in practice on Wednesday, David Legwand will be out of the Predators' line-up on Thursday night, as the team takes on the Sharks. The team is awaiting word on the severity of the injury, worried that there might be a broken bone in his face. If something is broken, the next step would be to see if surgery is necessary, obviously. Right now, consider Legwand out day-to-day.

The Predators are currently right in the middle of the train wreck, which we like to call the "Western Conference Playoff Race." They currently sit 9th, 1 point out of 8th, and have this key game against the Sharks. Legwand's 42 points this season will be missed in the line-up tonight, as he is a viable option down the middle for offense in Nashville.

In the Draft, Legwand is a member of Grant's team, which is almost enough said about the topic. Grant is currently in last in the Draft, by a fair margin. This injury only accentuates the situation.

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Gerber Suspended

It's official now. Martin Gerber has been suspended his assumed three games by the NHL after his abuse of an official in Tuesday night's game against the Capitals. Without going into all the detail that you already know, as you have seen the replays and made your opinions known, Gerber will hand over the reins to Curtis Joseph, unless the Leafs decide that this is yet another good time for Justin Pogge to show off his goods.

Gerber was drafted this year by Grant, but his lack of good play in Ottawa saw his demotion to the minors and then he was dropped from the Draft pool when he was able. Gerber is still a part of the Sheet, but no one wanted a piece of him this season, especially after his poor start and if anyone did pick him on the Sheet, they dropped him right away. You need a starting goalie in the East, which he was slated to be in Ottawa.

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Wednesday Night Preview

Games

Clayton 700 points

Marcus -10 from lead

Benson -14 from lead

John B. -14 from lead

Peter -19 from lead

Jeremy -22 from lead

FLA/BUF

Jason Pominville, F

None

None

None

Nathan Horton, F

David Booth, F

Derek Roy, F

Ryan Miller, G

MIN/NYI

None

None

Mark Streit, D

None

Marek Zidlicky, D

Pierre-Marc Bouchard, F

Mikko Koivu, F

Marc-Andre Bergeron, D

OTT/CAR

Eric Staal, F

None

None

Ray Whitney, F

None

None

Brian Elliot, G

CAL/PIT

None

Mike Cammalleri, F

Todd Bertuzzi, F

Daymond Langkow, F

None

Jarome Iginla, F

Curtis Glencross, F

SAN/CHI

Joe Thornton, F

Martin Havlat, F

None

Duncan Keith, D

None

Ryane Clowe, F

Cristobel Huet, G

Evgeni Nabokov, G

Nikolai Khabibulin, G

ANA/COL

None

None

Marek Svatos, F

Ryan Getzlaf, F

Scott Niedermayer, D

None

Tuesday night saw a little bit more of a shift in the standings, the lead opened up a little bit more (from 7 to 10 points), Benson overtook John for third place, but just by the tie-breaker, while both Peter and Jeremy fell off the pace a little bit more. That's pretty well what sums up Tuesday night, heading into Wednesday's action.

As you can see in the table above, there are still a number of red names on the list, representing the players who are unlikely to suit up for their respective teams. Jeremy's team leads in that category with three players, likely one of the bigger reasons why he is dropping off the pace so quickly. He will, however, have Nikolai Khabibulin back in the net for the Blackhawks, who play San Jose at home tonight.

With Cristobel Huet taking a back-seat tonight for Chicago, that only gives Marcus three active players tonight, to Clayton's four, to try and claw back a little bit of those 10 points in between. Fortunately for Marcus, the Flames have been scoring at an unreasonable pace and he has two players who are right in the middle of it. Their task in Pittsburgh may be a little tougher tonight though.

The forecast does look good for John, as he has four players and a goalie going tonight, so he'll definitely pass Benson for third spot and does have an outside shot at second with his line-up. I think we'll see some pretty good jockeying tonight. The table should look a little bit different for tomorrow's preview.

Statsny May Be Done

Well, it looks as though Paul Statsny's season is over. Statsny was diagnosed with a broken foot and will now miss the next 2-4 weeks, while there is only just over 2 weeks left in the year. The injury bug has just riddled Statsny's season, which was full of promise and potential in October, especially since he went in the fourth round of the Draft to Dale B..

If his season truly is finished, like we assume that it is, Statsny will have finished the season with only 45 games under his belt, scoring 11 goals and adding 25 assists. Even his rate of scorng (0.80 points-per-game) was down significantly, likely due to his inability to stay in the line-up for long periods of time.

Right now, I would say he's still a good player to pick up in the earlier rounds of a Draft, as he hasn't earned the injury-prone tag just yet, but he now falls into the consideration column, especially if he is injured a couple more times next season.

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Marleau Away

The Sharks will not have Patrick Marleau in the line-up tonight in Chicago, as he has gone home to attend to his family for the birth of their second child. Marleau is questionable to be back in the Sharks' line-up for Thursday's game in Nashville also, as there would be a great deal of travel involved. Don't be surprised if he isn't back in time for that game. He should be 100% to be back on Saturday, at home to Phoenix.

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Svatos Injured

The Avalanche are not expecting to have Marek Svatos in the line-up tonight, as they take on the Ducks at home. Svatos suffered a head injury and has been listed as out day-to-day. The actual nature of the injury has not yet been disclosed, but if it is at all related to a concussion, then he will then have to sit out for at least the remainder of the week, if not more.

Any long-term injury at this point in the season will be very hurtful to Benson and his run for the money in the Draft. Svatos, a member of Benson's Draft team, has been a reasonable contributor to his cause, scoring 14 goals and adding 19 assists in 65 games. With the race tightening up again, man-games lost are really hurtful to a pool team.

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Wednesday Morning Go-Around

Against the Oilers on the second half of back-to-back nights, the Red Wings felt it was a good night to dress Chris Chelios, so Brett Lebda was in the press box to open up a spot for the long-time veteran. Chelios and Lebda have been opposites in the line-up, since Chelios' return from injury and that will likely continue through the playoffs as well.

The Canucks decided to finally debut defenseman, Ossi Vaananen, on Tuesday night in Dallas, which meant one of the regular defensemen had to sit. Shane O'Brien won the toss and he was in the press box for the game. Vaananen only registered 8 minutes worth of ice-time, picking up an assist and was -1, so I would have to believe that O'Brien would be back in the line-up in St. Louis on Thursday.

It looks as though that Brian Pothier is still getting slowly inserted into the Capitals line-up, taking every other game off at the moment. Pothier is not likely 100%, coming back from post-concussion syndrome or he just may not be fully back in game shape. With Washington rolling along in the Eastern Conference, they likely don't feel the pressure to dress another defenseman right away.

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Tuesday Night Preview

Games

Clayton 694 points

Marcus -7 from lead

John B. -8 from lead

Benson -14 from lead

Peter -17 from lead

Jeremy -19 from lead

WAS/TOR

None

None

None

Alex Ovechkin, F

Alex Ponikarovsky, F

Pavel Kubina, D

MIN/NYR

Dan Girardi, D

Nik Antropov, F

Michal Rozsival, D

None

Marek Zidlicky, D

Pierre-Marc Bouchard, F

Mikko Koivu, F

Marc-Andre Bergeron, D

ATL/MTL

Alex Kovalev, F

Roman Hamrlik, D

Tobias Enstrom, D

Todd White, F

None

None

CBJ/TAM

Steve Mason, G

Mike Commodore, D

Kristian Huselius, F

Fedor Tyutin, D

None

Martin St. Louis, F

Vaclav Prospal, F

ANA/NAS

None

J-P Dumont, F

Ryan Getzlaf, F

Dan Hamhuis, D

Martin Erat, F

Shea Weber, D

Jason Arnott, F

Scott Niedermayer, D

Pekka Rinne, G

LOS/STL

Dustin Brown, F

Kyle Quincey, D

Anze Kopitar, F

None

Drew Doughty, D

Alex Frolov, F

Keith Tkachuk, F

Manny Legace, G

VAN/DAL

Kevin Bieksa, D

None

None

Mike Ribeiro, F

Marty Turco, G

None

Mattias Ohlund, D

Sami Salo, D

DET/EDM

None

Pavel Datsyuk, F

None

Johan Franzen, F

Ales Hemsky, F

None

Jiri Hudler, F

Ty Conklin, G

Well, the big game in Calgary was just that... a big game, as an assault on the lead. Marcus' squad seemed to have a part in every goal in the game, as he finished with a huge 7-point night and a leap into second place in the Draft.

Tuesday should figure to be a pretty big night for points, as there are eight games on the schedule and plenty of players on the go in the top six. The busiest game of the night will be in Nashville, as the Ducks come to visit. There will be seven active players in the top six, all from second place down. So, if it's a high scoring affair and a Nashville win, everyone from second to sixth can make a big move on first place.

There will also be numerous players missing from the top six on Tuesday night, especially in the Minnesota/New York game, where there would have been seven active players, but now there is only four, as Michal Rozsival, Marek Zidlicky and Mikko Koivu are all out of the line-ups tonight.

There is a chance that Keith Tkachuk may suit up for the Blues tonight, but since there is no confirmation of that, he'll remain in red for today.

Kings Lose Frolov

The Kings learned on Monday that they will now be without their leading goal scorer, Alexander Frolov, for upwards of 10 days due to a lower body injury he suffered on the weekend. The Kings are currently on a road trip through the Midwest and they had decided to send Frolov home to get treatment on his injury. The Kings have three games left on their current trip and they will play tonight in St. Louis.

This injury is yet another setback in Jeremy's bid for the money spots in the Draft. The list just seems to grow longer for Jeremy, as he sits 19 points back of the lead and 11 points back of the money. This is not the sort of news you want to hear at this point in the season.

Currently, Frolov has 28 goals and 27 assists in 72 games for the Kings.

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Tuesday Morning Wake-Up Call

You know it's getting close to playoff time when the only injury news you hear is upper and lower body injuries. Matt Cullen of the Carolina Hurricanes has now been sidelined with a lower body injury and was not in the line-up for the Hurricanes on Monday night against the Panthers. The injury was said to have occurred on Saturday, which he finished the game, but didn't feel great afterward. He remains questionable for Wednesday's game.

The Devils decided to rest Patrik Elias on Monday night, as he was also suffering from some lower body soreness. The Devils all-time scoring leader should likely figure back into the line-up for their next game on Friday in Chicago. This is welcomed news for Peter, as he needs Elias to be in the Devils' line-up to climb back into the money in the Draft.

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Richards Breaks Other Wrist

It's easy come, easy go for the Dallas Stars and Brad Richards. Richards returned to the Stars' line-up after missing only 15 games with a broken wrist, only to suffer another broken wrist in that same game. The wrist he broke on Saturday night was not the wrist he had broken previously. This new injury will now end his regular season, but I suppose there is some hope that he can make a return, depending on how deep the Stars go, if they go, in the playoffs. Currently, the Stars are not in the playoff picture, sitting in 12th spot in the West, only 3 points out of 8th.

In the Draft, Dale C. has Richards and was likely looking forward to his return, only have his season dashed away. Dale currently sits 33 points out of the money in 8th place and the scratching of Richards from his active list again should all but dash the hopes of a money season in the Draft.

In 56 games with the Stars, Richards recorded 16 goals and 32 assists.

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Oilers Sign Eberle

The Oilers announced today that they have given Jordan Eberle a new entry-level deal, which will now add another good young forward to the fold. Eberle has played a big role in Regina for the WHL Pats over the past three seasons and was also instrumental in Team Canada's success at the World Juniors this past winter. His size and abilities falls in line with a lot of the other young talent that is already in the Oilers system and on their current roster, so theoretically, he should fit in right away.

The only question that I have right now with Edmonton in this situation is, 'how fast do they want him into their line-up?' Since Eberle is somewhat under-sized in stature, it may still be two years before he makes a full-time roster spot. He may be best served to increase his size with another year in the WHL and possibly a year in the AHL to get up to speed.

He does bring a lot of upside to the table, so he should be on your watch list of players for your hockey pools, but I'm not going to fast-track him just yet.

Koivu Hurt

Bad news in Minnesota today, as the Wild are fearing that Mikko Koivu won't be coming back to their line-up in the near future, possibly for the long-term. Koivu injured his knee on Sunday versus Edmonton and the initial thoughts about the injury have him missing at least a week, possibly the remainder of the regular season (1o games). With the Wild currently sitting in 10th place in the West, 1 point out of 8th place, the team is now looking at the possibility of being on the outside looking in come playoff time.

Koivu currently leads the Wild in scoring with 18 goals and 44 assists in 72 games and has been the captain of the team more than once in their current rotation system. He has really established himself as a good fixture in Minnesota.

This injury may also bring some big pool implications for Jeremy, who has now fallen out of the money of late, currently sitting in sixth place in the Draft. If this injury is serious, then he will miss out on ten more skater games, which he so desperately needs. The injury couldn't have come at a worse time for the Wild or for Jeremy.

Click here to see an updated injury page.