December 17, 2008

Ryan Whitney is targetting December 23 for a return, according to the Tribune. He is doubtful for the 18th, but any game after that is now quite possible. Alex Goligoski has played too well for this to hurt him, in fact it may help him. Kris Letang, on the other hand, may slow even further as far as offense goes.

Oscar Moller has been made available by the Kings to play for Sweden in the WJC. As such, he will miss four or five games at the end of 2008/ start of 2009.

The Kings recalled Jonathan Quick from the AHL. If you are desperate for goaltending and have the room, scoop him up. You never know, in LA.

Since this is being reported everywhere, I figure I should mention it against my better judgment. Peter Forsberg is hoping to play in the NHL this season. Honestly everyone, he will not be your savior. I have owned him twice in my entire life – once in a keeper league when my REAL target was a lesser player who was "thrown in". I was so scared having him on my team that I took fewer than 48 hours to ship him to another owner – and that was before the lockout. The other time was the last round of a playoff pool, so it was really no risk. I don't like having this guy on my team and I pretend he is not there. I don't care if he signs tomorrow and plays in Colorado Saturday – it's not worth it.

Steve Sullivan participated in all non-contact practice drills yesterday. He is also a high risk, but unlike Forsberg, he could actually go a few weeks without missing consecutive games. They are careful to not set a timetable for a return, but my hunch is mid-January. He needs to take contact first and that will be the real test.

In his first game of the season, James Wisniewski picked up three assists. I guess that answers all the questions. He didn't see top PP time – that went to Campbell and Barker – but he saw some.

St. Louis prospect Nikolai Lemtyugov, ranked 284 on my prospects list, has left Peoria to return to Russia.

Carlo Colaiacovo played over 20 minutes last night and saw over five on the power play for the Blues. He is good to own until he gets hurt.

TJ Oshie is back skating and shooting on his own. There is no timetable, but I would guess from the sounds of it that he is minimum another week away… and at that point, he may as well rest until the Christmas break is over.

Nathan Gerbe will miss the next two weeks after getting sandwiched in the game on Saturday. It is an undisclosed upper body injury. Clarke MacArthur will get back into the lineup as a result.

Tomas Fleischmann returned to the WAS lineup and played nearly 18 minutes. He saw time on the PP, which essentially removed Brooks Laich from there. The team pretty much went with one PP unit last night – Ovechkin, Semin, Green and Backstrom were the others.