Breaking news – finally…I’m BACK! – Dobber

Simon Gagne will be out 6-8 weeks after electing to undergo surgery to repair his two hernias.

Although the Blues have been struggling, their two young defenseman haven’t. Glowing reviews of both EJ and Pietrangelo here.

Shea Weber is out 1-2 weeks with a foot injury.

The Canucks have signed Matt Pettinger (or are very close to doing so). He has been playing with the Manitoba Moose in the meantime.

Jan Hejda is slated to return to the lineup this Wednesday. His stability and defensive play is something the Jackets desperately need right now, as they can’t seem to hold any sort of lead.

Shea Weber didn’t practice today after injurying his leg on Saturday night. I am not sure if it is serious enough to keep him out of game action at this point. Still, keep this tidbit on your radar and I’ll update when I can.

Briere is hoping to skate tomorrow, and his lower-body injury is apparently unrelated to the groin/abdominal issues he suffered from last season.

Look for David Laliberte (who had two points on Saturday night) to stick around with the Flyers while they deal with the injuries up front. Laliberte is a former 4th round pick of the Flyers who had 28 goals for the Phantoms last season (and 50 in his final season in the QMJHL).

Sticking with the Flyers, Ryan Parent is out for at least a week with a groin pull, and Simon Gagne still has yet to receive any clarification for how to treat his two hernias.

Alexandre Giroux has shown why he is a classic “tweener” player (too good for the AHL, not good enough for the NHL). His shot and offensive awareness is negated at the NHL level because of his lack of mobility and poor defensive play.

The bad news keeps coming for the Hurricanes – Eric Staal is out with an upper body injury. That team needs a spark, but losing its best forward probably wasn’t what they had in mind…

Roberto Luongo still hasn’t skated after suffering a rib injury last week. He’ll probably travel with the team at the end of the week but there is no firm return date yet. Expect Raycroft to continue to start.

Per Darren Dreger, Kessel should be cleared to play tomorrow. I am not sure how well he is going to produice off the hop, but he will see ample PP time and the Leafs do have some talent on that first unit (most notably Tomas Kaberle).

As per a request below – a brief analysis on the Washington situation. As Dobber has posted before, Bruce Boudreau loves Tomas Fleischmann. He will see consistent top six minutes, and that probably hurts Laich (although he had two goals yesterday) in the long run. Ovechkin’s injury opens up a spot up front… but I’d say the top six will be some combination of Ovechkin-Backstrom-Semin and Fleischmann-Morrison-Knuble. I am not sure how this impacts Laich’s value, because he plays a game (gritty and a strong net presence) that none of those guys do (save for Knuble maybe).

Angus here – back after a little California vacation. Caught the Canuck games in both Los Angeles and Anaheim! It was my first visit to the city of LA and I had a blast. It was bad timing as Darryl is in the middle of moving right now and has very spotty internet access, but I am back now and ready to rock with the daily ramblings.

The injuries continue to pile up around the league. Ovechkin left the Caps game with an undisclosed injury (speculation has it being his left shoulder). More coming obviously.

Steve Mason left the Columbus game with less than a minute to go in the third with an equipment issue, but returned for overtime. Crisis averted. Thanks for the updates guys – keeps me on my toes! Mason still hasn’t played well in a while and the Jackets are really struggling to keep the puck out of their net without defenseman Jan Hejda. Once Hejda returns, expect Mason’s numbers to improve. Hejda is largely unknown leaguewide, but he has a huge impact on the ice for Columbus.

Michael Grabner was a late scratch for the Canucks with an undisclosed injury. The Kesler line with Grabner and Raymond has been Vancouver's best over the past five games. The injury bug is really biting the Canucks hard right now. Apparently Grabner will be out a few weeks with an ankle injury – more to come obviously.

Marc-Andre Fleury is making a case for the starting job with Canada at the Olympics.

Theodore had a decent start (five goals allowed on 32 shots), but don't expect him to lose his starting spot to Varlamov unless he strings together a few bad performances. Boudreau likes his veteran presence in between the pipes.

Expect some heads to roll in Carolina after an awful start to the season. The Hurricanes need some consistency at both defense and up front, so expect them to make a trade or two to try and shake things up.

Tough break for Tim Thomas owners – The B's had a shutout over the weekend, but Rask was in net. And Thomas allowed only one goal against the Rangers today, but picks up the loss. The B's are going to struggle to score until Savard returns. Now may be a good time to make a move for Thomas, as he may be a bit undervalued.

Gaborik returned from his "knee" (is that code for groin?) injury and scored the only goal of the game. He is obviously a fantasy stud whenever he is healthy, but you can't use that as an excuse when you come in second because he only plays 40 games. Expect him to get hurt and you can't be disappointed!

Alex Pietrangelo was promoted to the top PP unit for the Blues on Saturday night, but don't expect big production from him for a few seasons. Besides the studs (Phaneuf) and the odd wildcard (Del Zotto), young defenseman are not worth owning for at least two seasons.

Sobotka had two points the other night, but only saw 10 minutes of ice time against the Rangers. Marchand saw 17 and had five shots on goal. Marchand has some value this season, but long-term he has the skills to be a 60- point player. He is tenacious, crafty, and smart with and without the puck.

Louuuuuuuuuuuuu…who? Raycroft had a stellar game against the Avalanche last night, recording the shutout. He didn't see a ton of shots but was in great position all night. He looked good against the Kings and bad against the Ducks, but he is a valuable player as long as Luongo is out. The Canucks played a stifling defensive game and will continue to do that until they get some of their injured forwards back.