A very big and heartfelt thank you to all who serve, or have served Canada and the United States in the name of freedom.

Both JVR and Briere are probable for tomorrow night’s contest.

This could be an interesting one, although he’ll likely see more time in the press box than not, but the Wings claimed Drew Miller off of waivers. Expect a mirror-image of the production and ice time that Patrick Eaves was getting before Williams got hurt.

Joni Pitkanen will miss tonight’s contest with the flu.

Ilya Kovalchuk is back practicing. He was practicing with the team yesterday, but today he started early and left practice when the team took to the ice. If I were to guess, I would say another 7-10 days.

Want a real quick way of seeing all of a team’s line combos from the last game? Frozen Pool – right here in our Fantasy Tools section. Truly awesome. Another reminder – we will be charging for that service very soon, although there will be a deep discount if you have purchased the fantasy guide.

Since returning to action, Joe Pavelski has four points in two games.

Mikko Koivu has 13 points in his last 12.

I just dropped Radim Vrbata for David Jones in the Experts League. Vrbata is a streaky player, and as such is pretty good to have and your bench and just throw in for those weeks where he is white-hot. But There is not a lot of bench room in this league and I need some goals asap.

Roberto Luongo came on in relief of Raycroft yesterday, after the latter was chased. Oops – I had advised keeping Rayzor for another week after Bobby-Lu left practice Sunday.

Marian Hossa update from the Trib – he’ll return sometime shortly after November 19. He’ll be on that road trip. I can see him back on November 21 for the back-to-back against EDM and VAN.

Mike Green should be back to action tonight. He missed Saturday with a UBI.

Talk about a timely article – THN yesterday. My article assuring a Blues’ offensive turnaround was followed up nicely by a 6-1 Blues win. Boyes had four points, while McDonald and Perron had three each. I love it when I look good right away like that.

The team seems to be phasing out Tkachuk and Kariya, as the two vets combined for just 25 minutes of action and once again Kariya was completely off the power play. I can’t believe Kariya is done yet – he just turned 35 about three weeks ago. He is pointless in his last eight contests and should be on the bench in your league.

Evgeni Malkin practiced – without contact – with the Pens yesterday. The team is 2-4 without him and they have scored just 10 goals in those six games.

Brooks Orpik left last night’s contest with an undisclosed injury. With Gonchar and Letang already out, I can’t help but think a trade of some sort is on the way – the cupboard is fairly bare in the system, in terms of defensemen.

The five games that Sid the Kid has gone without a point is the longest of his career. If you were ever going to acquire Crosby in your keeper league, this is the moment to do it. You won’t get another moment like this for a long, long time – probably years.

The Oilers have recalled Ryan O’Marra to replace Robert Nilsson (head) in the lineup. He was a minus-1 in six minutes of ice time last night. Nilsson is day to day.

Florida has claimed the one-dimensional Steve MacIntyre off of waivers. His one dimension, of course, is his fists. He’ll get ice time until Moore and/or Dvorak get back, so if you need PIM (and nothing else) he’s your guy.

The H1N1 victims are slowly filing back – Ladislav Smid and David Krejci both played last night. Now we just need Andrew Walker back to full health and get Dobber Nation back rolling!

Krejci played with Ryder and Wheeler – 17 minutes, but no PP time (BOS had just one PP).

Welcome back Dennis Wideman – two points last night after going 10 games without any.

Mike Zigomanis has signed to play in the SEL for the remainder of the campaign.