The Daily Puck: Unlikely Shootout

The Daily Puck
by Kevin King, RotoWire Writer

• Incredible start to 2011 in the NHL with another terrific Winter Classic. Living in Buffalo, I can't say I feel all that bad about Sid and the Pens losing on home ice on their big night.
• The Winter Classic rightfully dominated the headlines of the hockey world, but the Sabres and Bruins played to a classic of their own. Buffalo locked up a 7-6 shootout win over the B's. Two of the best goalies in the NHL - and yeah, 12 goals.
• So much for the thought that Evgeni Nabokov would be coming back to the NHL and signing with Tampa Bay. The Lightning acquired Dwayne Roloson from the Islanders on Saturday, and Roloson owners should be thrilled with the move. Tampa gives up the fewest shots per game in the NHL.

Enjoy the World Juniors and a full slate of NHL action on Sunday!

Atlanta (Ondrej Pavelec) vs. Montreal (Carey Price), 1:00 p.m

Atlanta injuries:

Nikolai Antropov (LW) - Was placed on IR earlier in the week and his prognosis is undisclosed. The nature of the injury has not been announced, nor has a timetable for Antropov's return.
Evander Kane (C) - Returned on Friday night from an undisclosed injury and should be all set for Sunday's early puck drop.

Montreal injuries:

Andrei Markov (D) - Out for season with knee injury
Josh Gorges (D) - Out with knee injury and was placed on IR on Friday night.

NY Rangers (Henrik Lundqvist) vs. Florida (Tomas Vokoun), 5:00 p.m

NY Rangers injuries:

Ryan Callahan (RW) - Out six-to-eight weeks with hand injury
Erik Christensen (C) - Out four-to-six weeks with sprained MCL in right knee
Vaclav Prospal (LW) - Out until mid-January with knee injury
Michael Del Zotto (D) - Questionable for Sunday. He is ready to return from groin injury, but is being held out because of how well the six defensemen in front of him are playing
Derek Boogaard (LW) - Out with shoulder injury 

Florida injuries:

Mark Cullen (C) - Out, quite possibly for the entire season, with injured achilles
Byron Bitz (RW) - Out indefinitely with groin injury
Radek Dvorak (RW) - Returned on Friday night against Montreal and should be in the clear for Sunday
Cory Stillman (LW) - Was back on the ice Friday night and should be all set
Rostislav Olesz (C) - Like Dvorak and Stillman, Olesz returned to the ice Friday night and appears all set

Philadelphia (Sergei Bobrovsky) vs. Detroit (Jimmy Howard), 5:00 p.m

Philadelphia injuries:

Chris Pronger (D) - Out four-to-six weeks as he recovers from surgery to repair broken bone in his foot
Matt Walker (D) - Out and could miss up to two months after hip surgery a little more than a week ago
Ian Laperriere (C) - Out, and not sure if he will return at all this season as he battles to overcome a concussion
Jody Shelley (LW) - Is eligible to return from two-game suspension on Sunday night and should be on the ice for the Flyers

Red Wings injuries:

Mike Modano (C) - Out
Dan Cleary (RW) - Out for at least a month after fracturing his ankle early in the week
Pavel Datsyuk (C) - Out four-to-six weeks with hand and wrist injuries
Patrick Eaves (RW) - Out for Sunday's game against the Flyers with an elbow injury

Dallas (Kari Lehtonen) vs. St. Louis (Jaroslav Halak), 6:00 p.m

Dallas injuries: 

NO INJURIES OF NOTE

St. Louis injuries:

Andy McDonald (C) - Out as he battles to overcome concussion
Dave Scatchard (C) - Out three-to-five weeks with knee injury
David Perron (RW) - Out indefinitely as he also battles to overcome a concussion
T.J Oshie (LW) - Out indefinitely but skated last week to test his injured ankle

Phoenix (Ilya Bryzgalov) vs. Minnesota (Jose Theodore), 6:00 p.m

Phoenix injuries:

NO INJURIES OF NOTE

Minnesota injuries:

Cal Clutterbuck (RW) - Questionable for Sunday night with an undisclosed "nagging injury" that kept him off the ice Friday night against Nashville
Marek Zidlicky (D) - Out for several months, if not remainder of season, with shoulder injury

Columbus (Chris Mason) vs. Nashville (Pekka Rinne), 6:00 p.m

Columbus injuries:

NO INJURIES OF NOTE

Nashville injuries:

Matthew Lombardi (C) - Out; struggling to overcome concussion.
Martin Erat (RW) - Doubtful to play Sunday night after being downgraded to doubtful and missing Friday night's game against Minnesota.
Steve Sullivan (LW) - Out for Sunday after being placed on IR earlier in the week with a lower body injury.
Jordin TooToo (RW) - Out after voluntarily joining the NHL/NHLPA substance abuse and behavioral health program.

Vancouver (Roberto Luongo) vs. Colorado (Craig Anderson), 8:00 p.m

Vancouver injuries:

Mason Raymond (LW) - Out; still at least two weeks away from returning from broken thumb
Sami Salo (D) - Out indefinitely with terrible achilles injury. Will not even resume skating until late January
Roberto Luongo (G) - Will dress Sunday night, but whether or not he will start will be known during the course of the day Sunday

Colorado injuries:

Peter Mueller (CASA) - Out
Kyle Quincey (D) - Out
Chris Stewart (RW) - Out with broken hand, but recently reported that he is making progress in his recovery
Kyle Cumiskey (D) - Questionable for Sunday night as he nears a return after missing the last 25 games with a concussion
Philippe Dupuis (C) - Status for Sunday is uncertain after having to be helped off the ice Thursday night

Chicago (Corey Crawford) vs. Anaheim (Jonas Hiller), 8:00 p.m

Chicago injuries:

Fernando Pisani (RW) - Expects to play Sunday after battling the flu all week
Jonathan Toews (C) - Out for two weeks with shoulder injury, although he is determined to beat that timetable

Anaheim injuries:

Aaron Voros (RW) - Out one-to-three weeks with fractured orbital bone
Ryan Getzlaf (CASA) - Out indefinitely as he was placed on IR with a broken nose

TRANSACTIONS

Dwayne Roloson (G) - Traded to Tampa Bay
Ty Wishart (D) - Traded to N.Y Islanders
Brett Festerling (D) - Assigned to Hamilton (AHL)

AROUND THE LEAGUE

Who's Hot

Drew Stafford (RW) - Stafford netted a hat-trick in Saturday night's wild win over the Bruins. He looks comfortable, confident, and is seeing more ice in the absence of Derek Roy.
Henrik Sedin (C) - Hank Sedin is as good as it gets in the NHL. He's always brilliant, but he is on a run of exceptional brilliance right now, with two goals and eight assists in Vancouver's last four games.
Nicklas Lidstrom (D) - If it were a normal human being, you could rightfully expect a pretty considerable regression from Lidstrom this season. Seriously, the guy is 40 and still one of the best defensemen in the league, and he's hot right now. He has seven points (2 G, 5 A) in the last three games for the Red Wings. Amazing.

Who's Cold

Nathan Horton (RW) Boston - Knowing how ice cold Horton has been over the past month, you'd look at the score 7-6 score from Saturday's loss to Buffalo and think that Horton had to figure in the scoring somewhere, right? Nope. His gigantic offensive struggles continued again, and it's beyond time for his owners to look for other options.
Carey Price (G) Montreal - The honeymoon may be ending between Price and his fantasy owners. Price has two wins in his last nine starts. A lot of Price owners feared his incredible run early in the season was too good to be true ... and that's looking to be the case.
 
Recommended Pickup

Michael Leighton (G) Philadelphia - While the goaltending situation in Philly only gets cloudier with the return of Leighton earlier in the week, he still should be stashed away on a roster in most leagues. Leighton is simply getting paid way too much money for the Flyers to not give him every chance to win back his job from Sergei Bobrovsky. Take a shot on Leighton if you need goalie help, or as insurance if you have Bobrovsky on your team.