- Damian Cristodero of the St. Petersberg Times: Goalless in 6 games, and there are indications that Steven Stamkos is injured.
But then Boucher indicated Stamkos has been playing hurt.
“We never said it but he was injured,” Boucher said.
Well, that sparked all kinds of other questions.
What is the injury?
“Some parts of the body injury,” Boucher said. “It’s a lot better but it was really annoying for a while.”
Did the injury coincide with his scoring drought?
“Almost.”
Stamkos added
“nothing major, nothing that’s going to keep me from playing a game. Honestly, it’s the bumps and bruises I go through every year.”
He also said he has been fighting “a little bit of the flu, lately.”
- Michael Arace of the Columbus Dispatch: The Blue Jackets are in a 6-14-3 slide (heading into last night’s game) and need to make a trade to shake things up. They could use a centerman and a defenseman. Some of their veterans brought in to instill a winning attitude haven’t really lived up to the plan. Arace wonders if they’d overrated some of their younger players. They could trade Jake Voracek or Derick Brassard for a defenseman, and change the makeup of the team. Maybe trade a couple draft picks for one, like the Canadiens did in getting James Wisniewski, and where was Howson on that one? They could also move Sammy Pahlsson, Chris Clark, Fedor Tyutin, Jan Hejda and Mathieu Garon to a contender.
- George Sipple of the Detroit Free Press: Jimmy Howard injured his knee in the first period last night. He was helped off the ice with about 7 minutes to go with a bruised knee. The Red Wings have also lost Tomas Holmstrom for likely 4 weeks with a fractured right hand. “Battling around the net,” he said. “Felt something. “Got to the bench and I felt like I can’t hold on to the stick anymore.” The Wings are already without Mike Modano, Pavel Datsyuk, Dan Cleary, Chris Osgood and Brad Stuart.
- James Mirtle via twitter: Red Wings defenseman Brad Stuart had surgery on this broken jaw and will be out 6-8 weeks.
- Adrian Dater of the Denver Post: Avalanche forward Cal O’Reilly crashed heavily into the boards (video below), was taken to hospital, but was later released. He was able to join the team on their charter home, the injury he sustained is not known yet.
- Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News: The Dallas Stars will likely look for a puck moving defenseman, “but it would have to be the perfect deal.but it would have to be the perfect deal.” If a new owner is not found by the trade deadline day, it would have to be a ‘cash for cash’ deal as there is no extra money.
- Steve MacFarlane of the Calgary Sun: Flames GM Jay Feaster has been working the phones, “If for nothing else, I want to know what it is the teams are looking to do. Are there things that may make some sense for us? “You always want to make sure you’re gathering that information.” Feaster has 11 players with no-trade clauses and 11 with a cap of more than $3 million.
“Some guys will be honest with you up front and say, forget dollar for dollar, I have to win the battle of the dollars. I want to send more out than I’m taking back.
“That’s the tough thing. Guys want to match up term, too. It’s difficult when you have contracts with term and big dollars.
“I had to laugh, I had one guy say to me it has to be a fair deal skill for skill, but it has to be even money, too.”