Player Notes in the Draft (Dec 21)

I hope no one has been missing the regularity of the blog posts of late, it's just been a time that lacks motivation and all that nonsense, keeping busy in other places and such. You know.  We'll get some notes in here today and update the news and injury page on the website, as scoring has gone in for the past couple nights on Saturday morning.  Being the holidays, updates may get a little more sporadic, likely until the New Year.  Hopefully, we'll all get a little bit more refreshed over the holiday.

With that being said, the notes will be sorted by date from the news page, just in case you were wondering about the lack of rhyme... there is reason!

The Minnesota Wild placed their new number one goalie, Josh Harding, on the Injured Reserve on Wednesday afternoon, as the red hot goalie has needed to go some crucial treatments for his multiple sclerosis.  Harding was diagnosed with the illness over a year ago and has to undergo these treatments from time-to-time and this is one of those times.  The team expects him to miss the week, the minimum for the IR, and then be back.

Harding was the top pick in the first Waiver Draft this year for Doug, but even with his new big goalie on the shelf, his team is doing okay, picking up 18 points already this week.

The Buffalo Sabres have lost centre Cody Hodgson to an upper-body injury and it could be for a few weeks. Hodgson reportedly blocked a shot with his wrist on Wednesday night and the coaching staff is beginning to believe that this could cost Hodgson about three weeks on the shelf.  With the holidays coming, it might not be the biggest loss, but it will certainly be a big hole in a Sabres team that struggles as it is.

Hodgson belongs to Clayton this year and his team has been able to keep afloat in the top 10, but with Hodgson being so streaky this year, Clayton may not suffer too much from this one injury.

The Calgary Flames were without key veteran forward Mike Cammalleri for one game this week, as he was unable to go with a bout of the flu. Cammalleri did play on Thursday night against the Red Wings, picking up a pair of assists in the game, but his name did appear as out for one game, Tuesday's game against the Bruins.

Cammalleri is Leo's second-best forward this season with 17 points, which isn't good news on the scoring front, nor on the injury front.  It is hard to say he is a disappointment this year, as the team around him hasn't been good enough to keep him going.

The Montreal Canadiens and their fan base were all over the fact that Daniel Briere had signed on, bringing some of that home province flavour to a team longing for some of their previous identity of being predominantly French. Well, this experiment hasn't gone very well, as Briere was scratched on Thursday night against the St. Louis Blues.  Briere only has 10 points in 26 games this season and needs a kick in the rear end and the team is hoping that the scratch will work.

John is working his way up the standings, now sitting in 16th place, nine weeks after spending a couple weeks in last place, with a sub-par Briere in his line-up.

Already having lost a brief stint as the Nashville Predators starting goalie, Marek Mazanec spent Wednesday night's game on the shelf with a bout of the flu as well. Much like Cammalleri above, Mazanec was back the next game and was actually used in the back-up role, as Carter Hutton was pulled against the Lightning on Thursday night. There may be another start Mazanec's future, as Hutton has gone into a cold streak as well, so you never know.

Clayton also has Mazanec on this blog post and could really use some more goalie minutes, as his goalies are among the worst again in the second segment, picking up only 6 points since the start of Week Nine.

Thursday night in Ottawa, the Florida Panthers were in town and coach Paul MacLean continued to work the shuffle in his line-up, trying to get some traction in the win column. Out came forward Cory Conacher and defenseman Patrick Weircioch (again), trying to get a spark in the team, but it fell short, as the Sens fell 4-2 at home to the visiting team from the Sunshine State.  There are not very many innocent bodies in the Ottawa line-up these days, but the coach has to single out someone and it was Conacher and Weircioch's turn.

Conacher has been sub-par for Leo this year and Weircioch belongs to Doug, both teams in the pool are suffering greatly and their Senators are guilty of being worse than expected.  They are not the main reason for the lack of pool success, but it certainly doesn't help.

This isn't the first time that Jason Demers was a healthy scratch this season for the San Jose Sharks, rather, he has been in the press box about three times now. The blueliner doesn't have terrible scoring numbers for the Sharks this year, but I would have to guess that the coaching staff isn't all that pleased with his entire game, especially in a time of some struggles in the schedule.  I would expect to see Demers back int he line-up before too long.

The pool leader in goals scored this season, Brenda, has seen her team fall out of the money again in the last couple of weeks, as her forwards have been a real problem, scoring-wise.  Losing a defenseman for a game isn't going to help either, as her team needs to make up points somewhere.

Even more bad news for the San Jose Sharks, as they have had to place rookie sensation Tomas Hertl on the Injured Reserve this week, as he suffered a knee injury on Thursday night against the Los Angeles Kings, taking a hit from Dustin Brown.  On Friday afternoon, the news dropped that Hertl will be expected to be on the shelf for about a month, possibly a little bit less, but it wasn't welcome news in the San Jose dressing room.

Hertl belongs to one of the hot teams in the pool in Week Twelve, as Benson has 21 points this week, heading into Saturday's action.  This is his 1st round Waiver Draft pick, who has helped a bit, since coming on.

The Winnipeg Jets haven't exactly been the hottest team in the NHL either of late, so some roster shuffles have been done there this week, as Grant Clitsome sat on Friday night against the Florida Panthers.  Clitsome has 12 points in 32 games for the Jets this year and has been streaky, at best, so that is likely the reason he has found his way back to the press box.  The Jets did beat the Panthers, so it is hard to say what that means exactly for Clitsome.

Stacey C. shouldn't be too disappointed with Clitsome, as his defensemen, as a whole, have been hovering around the same amount of points.  The whole group may get the wrath of Stacey, more than just one guy.  Stacey sits nestled in 5th place to start Saturday, with 13 projected games on Saturday and Sunday, including one for Clitsome.

A big injury for the New Jersey Devils, as they begin to find some regularity in the win column these days.  Forward Damien Brunner suffered a knee injury on Friday night against the Anaheim Ducks, colliding with defenseman Mark Fistric, and it could cost the Swiss forward about four weeks on the shelf, much like Hertl above.  A tough break for Brunner, who has seen some improvement in his own game, which has helped lift the Devils in a number of games already in this rebound from a tough start.

Brunner has 2 points this week for Doug, helping him to his 18 points in the week, but that's where it will cease for a little while.  That's a tough break, as Doug has seen some real improvements in his team and there was hope that he could make a respectable finish after six weeks finishing in 24th.

Finally, the Washington Capitals are awaiting word on forward Marcus Johansson, who left Friday night's game against the Carolina Hurricanes with a lower-body injury.  As of Saturday morning, there was no real update on his condition, but the note is in, just as a place-marker for more.

More bad news for Wes M., who's team is trying to recover from dropping down to 20th place in Week Ten, his team's worst placement this season.  Injuries have been a huge problem for his skaters, as his team still ranks well-below average in games played, thanks to a rough first segment.

Player Notes in the Draft (Dec 17)

Things are not very rosy, despite stringing together some wins, for the Calgary Flames, as the coaching staff is making sure that they get the most out of every player. Lee Stempniak is now in the crosshairs, as he is now scheduled to be in the press box for tonight's game in Boston.  Stempniak has 13 points in 26 games this season for the Flames, but has still drawn the ire of Bob Hartley.

Maybe this is the kick in the pants that Stempniak needs to start putting up some more points for Leo in the draft.  Leo only sits 3 points clear of last place in the standings and could use a little bit of help making his way back up.

The St. Louis Blues are dealing with some injury problems of their own, as Jaden Schwartz sat out last night's game against the Ottawa Senators with an undisclosed muscle injury.  Schwartz is listed as out day-to-day for the time being, unsure about how much more time he is going to miss.  

Not sure how many more injuries Tony can handle this year.  Already without Justin Abdelkader, Alex Burrows, Henrik Zetterberg and Alex Edler, Tony's team has just been decimated by injury and still, he isn't out of the top 20, sitting in 19th.  Incroyable!

Week Eleven Newsletter

Better Late Than Never

Well, the days just haven't been very conducive to the pool for me, so things have been stripped back a little.  Since games have already started on Monday evening, when this Newsletter is being done up, it's gonna go really quickly.

New Outright Leader, Change In the Money

Week Eleven saw some changes in the top four, as Grant took the outright lead with 284 points, his third straight week with the most points, followed by Chris at 281 points, Allan dropped off to 3rd with 273 points and Stacey M. joined the money with 268 points.

Stacey C. jumped Brenda for 5th as well, as they sit with 264 points and 257 points, respectively.

The Race for Steven Stamkos

We have a new basement dweller this week, as Doug moved out and Ryan V. moved in.  Ryan now sits alone in 24th, but only 1 point behind both Doug and Leo, who each have 200 points.  This isn't supposed to be a race, but it looks like it might get good now.

Looks like the Washington Capitals are ready to score some goals again and put the rest of the league on notice.  Nicklas Backstrom had a monster week in the pool, the outright winner of the Player of the Week nod with 9 points in Week Eleven.  He made Scott G. into a really happy camper in the week, I'm sure.

Backstrom only needed to play in three games in the week to earn the honour, picking up 2 goals and 7 assists.

His biggest night of the week came on Tuesday, as he scored a goal and added 4 assists in the 6-5 shootout win for his Capitals.

The big week moved him up to 14th in pool scoring, now sitting with 8 goals and 28 assists in 33 games for the Capitals and Scott G..  Backstrom is Scott's 2nd best player on his team, to date, following Tampa goalie Ben Bishop, who has 41 points.

It has been some time since Ryan M. saw himself in the Mover & Shaker part of the Newsletter.  Week Thirteen of the 2012 season, to be exact.  That week, he had 34 points and moved into 12th place in the standings.

As it so happens, he picked up 37 points this week and again, moved into 12th place in the standings.  Ryan finished 13th (out of 22) in 2012, so he's looking to improve upon that statistic in the 2014 season.

Ryan moved up to 12th from 16th at the end of Week Ten, not too far out of his peak position this season, which was 10th, back in Week Two.

Miller owed his big week to Jonas Hiller (6 points), Marian Hossa (5), Dan Boyle (5), Martin St. Louis (4), Dainius Zubrus (4), Jiri Hudler (3) and Slava Voynov (3).

Two weeks ago, we saw the Tale of Two Dale's and in Week Eleven, we have the Tale of Two Ryan's.  Miller takes the Mover & Shaker and Ryan V. falls into the Basement Dweller.

Vincent only managed 13 points in Week Eleven, which now gives him the key to the basement apartment in the pool.  Granted, he has some close neighbours, so his stay may be temporary, but he is there nonetheless.

Vincent has had a tough time with injuries, now having both goalies (Jimmy Howard & Anton Khudobin) down, not to mention Derek Morris on the shelf with some personal issues.  The rest of the team was just plain cold otherwise, but there is lots of talent there, so he should be able to make his way out.

NEWS AND NOTES

The Detroit Red Wings injury situation got a little bit worse on Sunday afternoon, as Johan Franzen joined the list of injured Red Wings, as he sustained an upper-body injury against the Tampa Bay Lightning.  The word on Monday is that Franzen is now undergoing the concussion protocol, which means he'll be out at least a week.  Not good news for Chris M., who is in 2nd place.  Franzen joins Justin Abdelkader, who will also undergo the concussion protocol after his high hit earlier in the weekend.  Tony takes another hit to his season, while sitting in 18th.

Edmonton Oilers oft-injured forward Ales Hemsky had to sit out Sunday night's game against the Anaheim Ducks with a rib injury.  Hemsky is listed as out day-to-day with the injury, but there is no word as to whether or not he will be good to go at any time soon.  Brenda, sitting in 6th place, is slipping in the standings and losing bodies is counter-productive.

There was an update from the Penguins on Monday on their two new stars on the shelf, as Kristopher Letang has been placed on the Injured Reserve, as of Friday, with his upper-body injury, which has also forced him out of Monday's game against the Maple Leafs. Evgeni Malkin's status isn't quite as bad, but he also missed Monday's game against the Leafs, out with a lower-body injury, listed as day-to-day.  This signals some basement dwelling alarms for Stuart, I'm thinking, which hurts him, since he is already in 21st, heading into the week.

The young Jonathan Huberdeau was off to a good start in his NHL career, not missing a game since he was called up by the Panthers, but he is expected to be on the shelf this week with a foot injury.  He is currently listed as out day-to-day, with likely a bruise.  Doug is on the way out of the basement these days, but he's hoping an injury to Huberdeau won't slide him back down, as it is a slippery slope down in the 20's.

We get a Monday night update, as the Newsletter finishes... David Backes of the St. Louis Blues exited Monday night's game against the Senators with an upper-body injury, possibly a concussion.  There have been no early confirmations about the injury,  but there is a strong bit of speculation that it is likely that the head injury is likely the reason why he is out.  This could mean Dale C. is holding his breath this week, as he sits in 9th place, still well within striking range of the prizes.

Unable to cash in on the scoring smorgasbord from the Capitals on Sunday was Mikhail Grabovski, who sat out with a bout of the flu.  The flu has seen its share of harsh cases this season, but the odds are that Grabovski will feature back into the line-up before too long.  Kristy & Don have been suffering without any goaltending thus far in the second segment, as they have now fallen to 10th place in the standings and a missed game here doesn't help their cause at all.

Link to the Injury/News Page

HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA

Back to the lah-dee-dah doubleheader this coming Saturday, but it is a Winter Classic preview, as the Detroit Red Wings invade the Air Canada Centre to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs, while in the late game, it will be a visit to Rexall Place for the St. Louis Blues, taking on the Edmonton Oilers.

48 picks from the pool are represented from these four teams, but we'll have our fair share of injuries, back-up goalies and other assorted reasons for players missing from the line-up this coming weekend.

The leading scorers from these four teams... Jaroslav Halak (36 points), Alex Steen (35), and Phil Kessel (32).