The Daily Puck: Misery

The Daily Puck
by Kevin King

- It's Terry Pegula hysteria here in Buffalo today. The new owner has the city as excited as the day Drew Bledsoe came to town. Or Terrell Owens. Or when the Sabres were in the Stanley Cup Finals against Dallas. Or when all the Bills needed to do was cover a kick-off against the Tennessee Titans in the playoffs. Or when the Bills went to four Super Bowls. Get the picture? Cleveland has NOTHING on us here in Buffalo.
- I never thought I'd be saying/typing this sentence. But man, the Islanders are fun to watch. They're young, they're fast and they give up as many goals as they score. They're a great watch every night ... plus every player on the team will punch you in the face. Is this really happening?
- During Sunday's Penguins vs. Blackhawks game it kept being brought up that the Penguins were holding their own despite losing half of their roster to injury. I heard that again today, so I had to look into what the standard for "holding their own" is. The Pens have three wins in their last nine games, including two shutout losses at the hands on the Capitals and that nine goal debacle against the Islanders.

NY Islanders (Al Montoya) vs. Toronto (James Reimer), 7:00 p.m.

NY Islanders injuries:

Jeremy Colliton (RW) - Won't play Monday because of rib injury, but he has returned to practice.

Toronto injuries:

Brett Lebda (D) - Doubtful for Tuesday with leg injury that has him day-to-day.
Mike Brown (LW) - Expected to return Tuesday night.
Colby Armstrong (RW) - Also expected to return to the lineup on Tuesday night.
Jean-Sebastien Giguere (G) - Out with groin injury. Should return in seven to 10 days.
Jonas Gustavsson (G) - Out. Is in the AHL recovering from heart surgery and being slowly eased back

Phoenix (Ilya Bryzgalov) vs. Philadelphia (Sergei Bobrovsky), 7:00 p.m.

Phoenix injuries:

Ray Whitney (LW) - Doubtful for Monday night after leaving Saturday night's game with lower-body injury.
Adrian Aucoin (D) - Also doubtful for Monday night with lower-body injury.

Philadelphia injuries: 

Blair Betts (C) - Out for Tuesday night with finger injury.
Sean O'Donnell (D) - Out. Will miss up to two weeks with knee injury.

NY Rangers (Henrik Lundqvist) vs. Carolina (Cam Ward), 7:00 p.m.

NY Rangers injuries:

Ruslan Fedotenko (LW) - Out for Tuesday night with stomach ailment.
Marian Gaborik (LW) - Out. Did not travel with team to North Carolina due to post-concussion symptoms.
Brandon Prust (LW) - Questionable for Tuesday night after being limited to only 39 seconds in Sunday's game.

Carolina injuries:

Joni Pitkanen (D) - Questionable for Tuesday. He did fully practice on Monday which is a good indicator that he'll be on the ice to take on the Rangers on Tuesday night.
Ryan Carter (C) - Doubtful for Tuesday night after missing the team's last two games with upper-body injury.

Nashville (Pekka Rinne) vs. Columbus (Steve Mason), 7:00 p.m.

Nashville injuries:

Ryan Suter (D) - Out with upper-body injury.
Marcel Goc (C) - Out. Placed on IR over the weekend with upper-body injury.

Columbus injuries:

Derek Dorsett (RW) - Probable. Will be activated from IR after missing nearly two weeks with concussion-related issues.
Kristian Huselius (RW) - Doubtful to play Tuesday after missing second straight practice Monday with lower-body injury.
Rostislav Klesla (D) - Out. Is being slowly brought back from knee injury that he suffered a month ago.

San Jose (Annti Niemi) vs. Detroit (Jimmy Howard), 7:30 p.m.

San Jose injuries:

Scott Nichol (C) - Out. Will miss San Jose's entire road trip because of upper-body injury.

Detroit injuries:

Val Filppula (C) - Out. But is skating and should return from knee injury sometime this week.

Edmonton (Nikolai Khabibulin) vs. Minnesota (Niklas Backstrom), 8:00 p.m.

Edmonton injuries:

Gilbert Brule (C) - Doubtful. Was reported to be coming off of IR last week, but still has not returned from illness that has kept him out for all of February.

Minnesota injuries:

Mikko Koivu (C) - Out. Has broken index finger and will miss at least the next three weeks.

Colorado (Peter Budaj) vs. St. Louis (Ty Conklin), 8:00 p.m.

Colorado injuries:

Adam Foote (D) - Out with leg injury. Could return later this week.

St. Louis injuries:

Jaroslav Halak (G) - Out with hand injury, but should be activated sometime this week and could start by the weekend.

New Jersey (Johan Hedberg) vs. Dallas (Kari Lehtonen), 8:30 p.m.

New Jersey injuries:

Martin Brodeur (G) - Out for Tuesday night, but has declared himself ready to play and should get a start in New Jersey's next game, Friday night in Tampa.

Dallas injuries:

Niklas Grossman (D) - Out for Tuesday and probably a few more games with hip injury.
Jamie Benn (LW) - Will return Tuesday night after missing a month due to a shoulder injury.
Brad Richards (C) - Out. Dealing with concussion-related symptoms.

Boston (Tim Thomas) vs. Calgary (Miikka Kiprusoff), 9:00 p.m.

Boston injuries:

No Significant Injury News

Calgary injuries:

No Significant Injury News

Montreal (Carey Price) vs. Vancouver (Roberto Luongo), 10:00 p.m.

Montreal injuries:

Jaroslav Spacek (D) - Out with lower-body injury. Some reports have Spacek out for the remainder of the season, but those reports are being denied by the Habs.
Mathieu Darche (LW) - Out and on IR with groin injury.

Vancouver injuries:

Keith Ballard (D) - Returns to the ice Tuesday night against the Habs after missing three weeks with a knee injury.
Dan Hamhuis (D) - Also will make his return on Tuesday night against Montreal after missing time due to a concussion.
Kevin Bieksa (D) - Out with broken foot. Likely to miss three more weeks.

TRANSACTIONS

Jonathon Blum (D) Nashville - Recalled from Milwaukee (AHL)
Mark Dekanich (G) Nashville - Recalled from Milwaukee (AHL)
Anders Lindback (G) Nashville - Assigned to Milwaukee (AHL)
Kyle Turris (C) Phoenix - Recalled from San Antonio (AHL)
David Schlemko (D) Phoenix - Recalled from San Antonio (AHL)
Brian Strait (D) Pittsburgh - Assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AHL)
Ryan Craig (LW) Pittsburgh - Assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AHL)
John McCarthy (LW) San Jose - Recalled from Worcester (AHL)
Yann Sauve (D) Vancouver - Re-assigned to Manitoba (AHL)

AROUND THE LEAGUE

Who's Hot

Matt Moulson (LW) NY Islanders - Moulson netted the first hat-trick of his career on Monday night, aided by an empty-netter at the end of the game. He has five goals over the last two games for the Isles, with a plus-5 over that span.
Keith Yandle (D) Phoenix - It's no hard to consider anything Yandle does as a real hot streak. It's just the big man doing what he has done all season. The native of Boston, Mass has a goal and three assists in the last two games for the 'Yotes, and carried a plus-5 in those two contests as well.
Alex Pietrangelo (D) St. Louis - The Blues are scoring a ton of goals lately, and Pietrangelo is getting his name on the scoresheet on about half of all of their goals of late. He has a goal and four assists in the last two games for the Blues, a stretch that has seen St. Louis score 12 goals altogether.

Who's Cold

Cam Ward (G) Carolina - Ward is 1-2 in his last three starts with a 3.06 goals-against, which doesn't sound awful. But he has only stopped 87% of the pucks that he has seen and has let in some softies at a time when the Canes really need him to step it up.
Erik Christensen (C) NY Rangers - Christensen did not have a terrible season going for him ... and then February hit. He is pointless in the last 10 for the Rangers after a pretty good stretch to begin 2011.
Jaret Stoll (C) Los Angeles - Stoll started February on a nice roll, and that streak has stalled out (sorry). Stoll has stayed off of the scoresheet for four straight games, and is a minus-3 over that stretch. He ended last week losing points in a lot of weekly leagues ... not that I'm bitter or anything.

Recommended Pickup

James Reimer (G) Toronto - It may be too late to grab Reimer in your league, considering the fact that good starting goaltending is a rare commodity this season, but if he's out there and you need help between the pipes, snag him. If you have Johan Hedberg for example, who gave you a nice ride but will be back to the bench after tonight, Reimer could pick up where Moose is leaving off.