The latest injury news about Pastrnak, Schultz, Johnson, Sutter, Sekac and many others…

Sorry about the absence, folks. Teacher’s College does have its demands. Scott did a great job for me these past two weeks. Let's get to injuries, shall we?

Anaheim Ducks: Jiri Sekac – Sekac is still on the IR from an ankle sprain suffered on November 1^st when the Predators’ Gabriel Bourque hit him.

Anaheim Ducks: Simon Despres – The Ducks’ defenseman is still out with a concussion, and it might be another week before he’s cleared for contact.

Arizona Coyotes: Steve Downie – Downie, out with an upper-body injury, was placed on the injured reserve list Monday.

Arizona Coyotes: Nicklas Grossman – Grossman will be in the lineup, or at least “available to play”, Wednesday versus Anaheim.

Arizona Coyotes: Mike Smith – Smith said he’s feeling “good enough to play now”, indicating a return Wednesday night.

Boston Bruins: Alexander Khokhlachev – After having surgery on his hand, Khokhlachev is still three-to-five weeks out.

Boston Bruins: David Pastrnak – After being seen in crutches and a walking boot, the Bruins forward was placed on injured reserve, as his team will take no chances with his health.

Buffalo Sabres: Zemgus Girgensons – Girgensons suffered an upper-body injury on November 14^th versus the Sharks. He’s looking to play in tomorrow night’s game against Nashville on Wednesday.

Buffalo Sabres: Evander Kane – Kane returned for a game, only to immediately be branded as DTD. He managed to get three games in though, so… yay?

Carolina Hurricanes: Ryan Murphy – Murphy recently suffered a concussion and has not had his status updated beyond the hopes and dreams of his coach.

Columbus Blue Jackets: Alexander Wennberg – Wennberg has been activated off the injured reserve by the Jackets.

Columbus Blue Jackets: Brandon Dubinsky – Like Wennberg, Dubinsky too was activated off the IR.

Columbus Blue Jackets: Rene Bourque – It’s not all rainbows and sunshine for the Jackets, though. They just lost Rene Bourque for 1 week or more to the IR as an undisclosed injury.

Columbus Blue Jackets: Cody Goloubef – The Jackets will also miss defenseman Cody Goloubef for around 6 weeks with a broken jaw.

Colorado Avalanche: Alex Tanguay – The Avalanche sniper has been out of action since November 6^th. However, he resumed skating today and might make his return soon.

Dallas Stars: Jason Demers – Demers is out with a lower-body injury and did not play on Tuesday night versus the Sens.

Detroit Red Wings: Kyle Quincey – Quincey is still eight-to-eleven weeks away from returning from ankle surgery.

Edmonton Oilers: Connor McDavid – The big one, the one that rocked my team to its core. The wunderkind is still expected to make a return around January, if Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli’s original schedule holds. To be honest, I thought the play looked really clean, but when a superstar says that he’s not gonna comment on something instead of absolving the Flyers’ defenseman of blame, I thought it’s pretty indicative that something happened there that Don Cherry might be right about when he said it was intentional.

Edmonton Oilers: Justin Schultz – Schultz is aiming to be in the lineup this weekend.

Florida Panthers: Dmitri Kulikov – Kulikov’s knee injury won’t need surgery, but it’s worse than we thought: he’ll be out 2-to-4 weeks.

Los Angeles Kings: Dwight King – No news since last week on King’s broken toe, but he is supposedly only two weeks away from being healed, according to his initial schedule.

Minnesota Wild: Zach Parise – The immediate future looked bright for Parise as he skated with his teammates on Saturday but he was declared doubtful to play in any of the games this week.

Montreal Canadiens: Alexei Emelin – Emelin has been out since November 11th with a lower body injury. The good news is he was just cleared for action. The bad news is he won't play on Wednesday

Montreal Canadiens: Brendan Gallagher – After blocking a shot, Gallagher left the ice for an appointment with the Injured Reserve. He’s out indefinitely with two fractured fingers.

Montreal Canadiens: Carey Price – Price returned on November 20th and in two games so far, he's got a 0.915 save percentage. Average for an elite goalie like Price but he got the win in both games.

New Jersey Devils: Patrik Elias – After what feels like forever Devils forward Patrik Elias is looking to make his season debut on Wednesday.

New York Islanders: Mikhail Grabovski – Grabovski looks ok after dealing with an upper body injury since last Monday. He returned to the lineup on Friday and is averaging 13 minutes a game since.

Ottawa Senators: Andrew Hammond – The Hamburglar doesn't look like he'll be in the lineup anytime soon. He took a puck to the mask during practice about a week and a half ago and apparently suffered an undisclosed injury, which likely means concussion. He's out indefinitely.

Philadelphia Flyers: RJ Umberger – Umberger will still miss approximately one week dealing with a lower body injury.

Philadelphia Flyers: Sam Gagner – After suffering a cut above his left eye, Gagner will be reevaluated on Wednesday.

Philadelphia Flyers: Mark Streit – As mentioned last week, Streit is out with aid lower body ailment. He had surgery to repair a pubic plate detachment and still has about 5 weeks to go on his recovery time.

Philadelphia Flyers: Ryan White – White still has 1-3 weeks left on his recovery schedule, but skated and is making progress towards being cleared for contact.

Philadelphia Flyers: Michal Neuvirth – Neuvirth returned to the lineup on November 23rd to help the Flyers take a 3-2 overtime victory. Neuvirth made 31 saves on 33 shots in the game.

St. Louis Blues: Steve Ott – The Blues enforcer and agitator returned on November 19th but has yet to put up any points and has just two shots while averaging 11 minutes a game.

St. Louis Blues: Jori Lehtera – Lehtera didn't miss any games after a scary incident which might have looked like a neck injury.

Tampa Bay Lightning: Tyler Johnson – It seems like I'm writing about this kid again and again. Is it too early to label him injury-prone? It looks like he has a chance to be in the lineup for the lightning on Wednesday night against the Kings.

Tampa Bay Lightning: Jonathan Drouin – The young winger has an undisclosed injury and is at the very least not as close to returning as his teammate Tyler Johnson.

Tampa Bay Lightning: Cedric Paquette – Cedric Paquette has a similar story to Jonathan Drouin, but at least his upper-body injury is more specific. He's also not as close as Tyler Johnson so I assume he will miss Wednesday's contest at the very least.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Nick Spaling – Spaling returned on November 23rd and was largely invisible, posting no points no shots no pins and not even a plus-minus in 12 minutes of ice time.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Roman Polak – Polak missed practice today because his foot was too swollen to fit in a skate.

Vancouver Canucks: Brandon Prust – Brandon Prust has finally fully recovered from his ankle injury and returned to Vancouver's active roster on November 21st.

Vancouver Canucks: Ben Hutton – The Canucks’ rookie defenseman will be out for around two weeks.

Vancouver Canucks: Brandon Sutter – Sutter consulted with a specialist and has decided to reevaluate his abdominal strain in another two weeks. Until then, don't expect him to participate in any games.

Follow me on Twitter for injury updates and general hockey-related tomfoolery! @AjayDaCosta, in case that address bar is too far away.