Has Luongo suffered a setback? He wasn’t in practice…

Alex Tanguay has eight points in his last eight contests.

Nigel Dawes has four points in his last two games and is a plus-4 in that span. That improves his dismal plus/minus to minus-4. Sutter stuck with him and he appears to have gotten his career back on track.

While Ryan Shannon sits (more on him below), Jonathan Cheechoo has two points in 14 games. Cheech is down to sub-10-minute games now. Five of his last seven he has seen below 10 minutes of ice time.

Anton Stralman has eight points in his last 12 games. He seems to have found his niche in Columbus. Five of his eight points have come on the power play. His minus-5 raises concerns, so he is not out of the woods yet, but I think this is the beginning of three or four seasons of 40 to 48 points. After that, with continued development, he’ll be a top scorer at his position. He just needs to take care of his own end better – and Hitch is the best at driving that point home.

Martin Erat made his season debut yesterday. Well, not really – but it’s the first time we’ve noticed him. Back from injury, he notched two points.

Last year, Steve Sullivan had five points in his first 16 games. This year he has five in his first 15. Had you given up on his last year, you would have missed his run of 27 points in 25 contests.

Joe Pavelski played just 14 minutes in his return to action from a foot injury, but managed a pair of points. Despite missing 15 games, he should still match last season’s output of 59 points.

The Pens are 2-3 with Malkin out of the lineup. They’ve managed just two goals per game without him. Crosby had two points in the first game without him, but has been blanked the rest of the way.

One player who needs to step up is Jordan Staal. His ice time shot up FIVE minutes per game with Malkin out of the lineup. He is regularly seeing 21 minutes a game now or more, yet has just two points in five games.

Kris Letang lest last night’s contest with an UBI.

Cam Ward Suffered a terrible to his leg – footage is below. Do not expect him to play this week, and probably not next week either.

James van Reimsdyk was hit by a Carter shot and it broke the tip of his pinky finger. The team doesn’t play until Thursday, so we won’t hear more info on this for a few days I’m sure. Yet more PP time will open up for Giroux if JVR misses time.

The Sens recalled Jesse Winchester, but he played just five minutes. Meanwhile, Ryan Shannon sits again. I’m getting visions of Steve Sullivan in Toronto here – Sully would play with Sundin and get three points, and then the next game he would play with Tie Domi and Kris King and get zero points, obviously. The game after that he was scratched. He has played 13% of his shifts with quality players, according to Arbuthnot’s Frozen Pool tool (found in “fantasy tools” on this site), and the rest of the time has been with the likes of Neil, Kelly, Ruutu or Foligno. Sullivan was later waived and the Blackhawks picked him up – and the rest is history. The same sort of thing can be said about Rich Peverley. I guess, for Shannon’s sake (I’m pulling for him even though I don’t own him), I’d like to see him get waived.

Niklas Bergfors has four goals and seven points in his last eight games and as a winger he should be owned in most roto leagues. The Devils are starting to rely on him a little more and I think that will increase as the year goes on. Angus’s projection yesterday in the ramblings sounds about right to me for this year. He should be a 70-point guy in about three years.

Jason Williams broke his ankle last night in an ugly play. His leg twisted so awkwardly that I won’t post the clip here – it’s too ugly for me to watch again, I have to turn my head. The Wings are now down Franzen, Williams and Filppula and they just lost to the lowly Leafs. They are currently not in the Top 8 and, in carrying over a thought I had here in September, I wonder if they’ll get there. They do have thre games in hand on most of the Conference, so we’ll see how they bounce back.

No team has played fewer games than Atlanta – fully five games shy of what the Rangers and Sharks have played. It may be a good time to pull off a Prospal for Antropov kind of swap.

I suspect that Brandon Dubinsky has a broken wrist – he left the game last night after taking a shot off of it and the coach said that he will “be out a while”. You aren’t “out a while” if your wrist is bruised…and you don’t sprain your wrist by bouncing a puck off it. By process of elimination, it’s broken.

Chris Drury suffered a concussion and left the game. With two-thirds of their third line gone, the Rangers will probably recall Parenteau and either Corey Locke of Evgeny Grachev. Grachev has 12 points in 14 games as a teenaged rookie-pro and he remains an elite fantasy prospect on the DobberHockey list.

Cam Ward’s injury:

I was looking for Letang footage on youtube, but stumbled on he and Kennedy doing the Weather – kind of funny…but more like a car crash, I just have trouble looking away and ended up watching the entire clip