- Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press: Red Wings Jimmy Howard left in the first period of last night’s game. Howard apparently was experiencing blurry vision after getting hit with a puck in practice.
“I didn’t know about that,” Mike Babcock said. “He wasn’t seeing good or something like that.
“He’ll get tested tomorrow, we’ll find out more.”
Wings forward Mikael Samuelsson, who just returned from a groin injury, missed the game with a hand injury after getting hit by an Ian White shot during the morning skate. Johan Franzen expects to get back in the lineup on Thursday. Carlo Colaiacovo is skating and should return soon. Brendan Smith is hoping to return next week.
- Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer: Hurricanes defenseman Joni Pitkanen will skate today and could return to practice soon according to coach Kirk Muller. Jeff Skinner, Tim Gleason, Tim Brent and Tim Wallace are all day-to-day. Gleason could skate today. It’s unlikely that Skinner will, “there isn’t anything that tells me he’s going to skate tomorrow.”
- Mark Lazarus of the Chicago Sun-Times: Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook is day-to-day after taking a puck “Uh, somewhere” according to coach Quenneville. Goalie Corey Crawford hasn’t practiced since last Thursday with an upper-body injury. He skated on his own before yesterday’s practice.