The Daily Puck: Remember Lupul?

The Daily Puck
George Kurtz, RotoWire Writer

Projected Goalie Starters

Nashville (Anders Lindback) at New Jersey (Martin Brodeur), 7:00 PM
Buffalo (Ryan Miller) at Florida (Tomas Vokoun), 7:30 PM
Detroit (Jimmy Howard) at Chicago (Corey Crawford), 8:30 PM
Ottawa (Pascal Leclaire) at Colorado (Craig Anderson), 9:00 PM

Injuries for Teams Playing Friday

Day-to-Day (Includes DL players close to returning)
David Legwand (C) Nashville – (Lower body) Has resumed skating, doubtful to play Friday.
Patric Hornqvist (W) Nashville -- (Upper body) Will not play Friday.
Cory Stillman (W) Florida -- (Back) Testing his back in practice, doubtful to play Friday.
Viktor Stalberg (W) Chicago – (Upper body) Will not play Friday.
Patrick Kane (W) Chicago – (Leg) Minor setback makes a Friday return highly unlikely.
Milan Hejduk (W) Colorado – (Groin) Questionable to play Friday.

Long Term or IR
Pekka Rinne (G) Nashville – (Knee) Traveling with the team, waiting for medical clearance, questionable to play Friday at New Jersey.
Mike Modano (C) Detroit – (Wrist) Best-case scenario is a February return.
Zach Parise (W) New Jersey – (Knee) Out until early February.
Radek Dvorak (W) Florida – (Shoulder) Out until at least next week.
Marian Hossa (W) Chicago – (Lower body) Out for Friday, questionable for Sunday.
Peter Mueller (W) Colorado – (Concussion) Still no timetable for a return to action.
Chris Stewart (W) Colorado (Hand) – Hand surgery will keep Stewart out 2-4 weeks.

Transactions

Derek MacKenzie (C) Columbus – Placed on IR.
Dustin Boyd (C) Montreal – Re-assigned to the AHL.
Brian Lee (D) Ottawa – Claimed off waivers.
Dustin Jeffrey (C) Pittsburgh – Re-assigned to the AHL.
Nikita Nikitin (D) St. Louis –Recalled from the AHL.
Jay Beagle (W) Washington –Recalled from the AHL.
Brian Fahey (D) Washington – Re-assigned to the AHL.
Ryan Johnson (C) Chicago –Signed a two-way contract.
Andrew Gordon (W) Washington – Recalled from the AHL.
Jonas Andersson (W) Vancouver – Re-assigned to the AHL.
Aaron Volpatti (W) Vancouver – Recalled from the AHL.
Steve Begin (C) Nashville – Recalled from the AHL.
Jeremy Morin (C) Chicago – Re-assigned to the AHL.
Andy McDonald (C) St. Louis – Placed on IR.

Hot

Tomas Fleischmann (W) Colorado – We touched on it yesterday, but it's amazing what a change of scenery can do for a player. Since being traded to the Avalanche, Fleischmann has been a goal-scoring machine with five goals and five assists in seven games. He is also seeing time on the power play and could be a solid pickup for those who are a little short at wing.
Nicklas Lidstrom (D) Detroit – Hard to believe this future Hall of Famer scored the first hat trick of his illustrious career this week. Lidstrom is obviously not available in your fantasy league, but those who thought he might be slowing down at age 40 and let him pass during their draft were sadly mistaken as once again Lidstrom is on pace to be a major contender for the Norris Trophy.

Cold

Johan Franzen (W) Detroit – The "Mule" has been a little off his game of late with only a solitary assist in his last four games to go alone with a minus-2 rating. It shouldn't take Franzen long though, to get back on the positive side of the ledger, as he is surrounded by too much talent not to wrinkle the twine on a consistent basis.
Marty Turco (G) Chicago – It took all of two months for Turco to lose the starting job to Corey Crawford. Turco hasn't won a game since mid-November and it's not like he's losing games 2-1 when he gets a shot in net. He had to be pulled from his last start, and his only chance of getting back into the good graces of coach Joel Quenneville may be for Crawford to play himself out of the job.

Recommended Pickup

Joffrey Lupul (W) Anaheim – Remember him? He has been out of the lineup for what seems like forever with a back injury and then a blood infection, but let's not forget that the Ducks thought enough of him to re-acquire him in the Chris Pronger deal. He has scored three goals in seven games since his return and should only get better as his conditioning improves.