Hamonic has missed the last three games and was not expected to play tonight, but his availability for the morning skate suggests that he could suit up tonight. Even if he doesn't it is a good sign that he is close.
Briere has two goals and one assist in 10 games this season. He played a season-low 6:31 on Tuesday and will be replaced by Dennis Everberg tonight vs. the Islanders.
Gibson stopped all 38 shots that he faced in the Ducks 1-0 win over the Blackhawks on Tuesday. It was an excellent game for the young netminder who has now won back-to-back starts while stopping 54 of 55 shots (.982 SV%). He should be safe to deploy tonight vs. a Blues team without Backes, Stastny or Oshie.
Niemi allowed two goals on 33 shots in a shootout win over the Avalanche on Tuesday. It was his second straight win which has earned him a third consecutive start tonight in Minnesota. It is not a great matchup given the Wild are averaging 3.38 goals per game, but Niemi is hot right now so he might be a better option than your other netminders.
Foligno was on the ice for the Blue Jackets practice this morning and took line rushes, which is a good sign that he could be available on Friday. This would be rather impressive considering he was stretchered off of the ice less than a week ago. His return would definitely help an extremely depleted Blue Jackets lineup.
Coach Maclean would not elaborate on why Boroweicki will not play tonight, but Patrick Wiercioch will enter the lineup for the the unavailable defenseman.
Weiss' conditioning stint did not last very long… He will head back to Detroit and likely be placed on injured reserve to make room for Johan Franzen who is set to be back this weekend. Weiss can not stay healthy and should be considered in any fantasy format until he can play in consecutive games.
Heatley made his Ducks debut on Tuesday and played just 13:26 with one shot on goal. In practice this morning he skated with Ryan Kesler and Devante-Smith Pelly while Matt Beleskey skated with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf. It still is not a bad line, but his production would likely be higher on the top-line.
After just one game the Ducks have already moved Dany Heatley off of the top-line and replaced him with Beleskey. The big winger has five goals in the first 10 games of the season. He is averaging 2.7 shots per game and firing at 18.5% right now.
Veilleux, 32, is the Wild's go to recall whenever they need a bottom-6 forward. He has yet to record a point with Iowa this season and had just three goals in 34 games with Minnesota last season.
Cooke's injury is not serious and he will not miss a lot of time, listed as day-to-day. With Cooke out the Wild have recalled Stephane Veilleux to play on Thursday.
Lindstrom was ruled out for Thursday's game, but it does not look good for him as he battles a bacterial illness. The Blues will already be without David Backes, T.J Oshie and Paul Stastny tonight, so they could definitely use Lindstrom.
There is no word on when Oshie may have suffered the concussion, but it will keep him sidelined for at least tonight. Concussions are a tough injury to put a timetable on, so consider him day-to-day and likely to miss a couple of games.
Backes suffered the concussion on a collision with Trevor Daley on Tuesday. With Backes out, Jori Lehtera will centre the Blues top-line. Backes should be considered day-to-day, but concussions are tricky.
Crawford has missed the last five games, but will suit up and be on the bench tonight behind Scott Darling who makes his third straight start. Darling has been a great story and is the hot-hand right now so they will let Crawford get a few more practices in and then he figures to start on Saturday in Toronto.
Darling stopped 24 of 25 shots in the Hawks 1-0 loss to the Ducks on Tuesday. It was a tough way to suffer your first NHL loss, but they will give him the chance to get back in the win column tonight vs. Ottawa. He stopped 32 of 33 shots in a 2-1 win over the Senators in his NHL debut on Sunday.
Hemsky jones Tyler Seguin, Jason Spezza, Jamie Benn and Trevor Daley on the Stars top PP unit for Friday's game vs. the Ducks. Hemsky is off to a painfully slow start to the season, having recorded just one assist with a minus-6 rating in the first nine games. The Stars are hoping the move to the top unit might spark some offence for the veteran winger.
Bogosian was not on the ice for the Jets morning skate so it does not seem likely that he will play, but we will wait for warmups. If he can't go, Adam Pardy will be in the lineup.
Skinner was moved up to the top-line with Eric Staal and Alex Semin in Hurricanes practice this morning. The Canes don't play until Saturday, so we will see if this stays this way before their meeting with the Coyotes. They are still searching for their first win of the year, so no changes will hurt right now.
Pavelec gave up three goals on 21 shots in the Jets 4-3 victory over the Islanders on Tuesday. It marked the first time this season that Pav has won back-to-back games and he now has four W's on the season. He has a quality matchup tonight vs. a Devils team who just got rocked 8-3 by the Penguins on Tuesday.
