Johnson will miss this Friday and Saturday’s games as well as next Tuesday in Washington. He is eligible to return next Friday in Philadelphia. The Blue Jackets are already depleted with injuries, so a suspension was the last thing they needed.
Williams was cut near his eye when he was clipped with a high stick last night in Dallas. The Kings will take on the Islanders on Thursday, so monitor his status during tomorrow’s morning skate.
The Islanders first line left-wing spot has been a revolving door to start the season. Cory Conacher and Brock Nelson have occupied that spot previously, now Kulemin will get a twirl there. He has one goal and five assists in 11 games this season.
Stuart suffered a hamstring injury in the Avalanche loss to the Canucks last night. With Stuart out, Zach Redmond will slide back into the lineup and likely be paired with Nick Holden.
Berra allowed four goals on 36 shots in the Avs’ loss to the Panthers on October 21st. Berra is 1-0-1 with a 2.07 GAA and .932 SV% so far this season. He will take on a Maple Leafs team who have won three of their last four while outscoring their opponents 13-6.
Halak allowed three goals on 31 shots in the Islanders loss to the Sharks last Saturday. He has lost four in a row while giving up a total of 14 goals on 121 shots (.884 SV%). He will try to snap his losing skid tonight, but it won’t be easy as he takes on the Ducks in Anaheim.
After playing over 20 minutes in the Leafs’ loss to the Coyotes last night, Polak was not on the ice for practice this morning due to the flu. He is still expected to play tomorrow.
Palmieri has not played this season because of a high ankle sprain, but returned to practice this afternoon. According to Boudreau, he is not expected to be back until mid-November.
Gonchar made his season debut on Tuesday after missing the start of the season with a fractured ankle. He was not at practice this morning because he is dealing with a muscle strain. The Stars will wait until tomorrow to see where he is and then make a decision on his status for the game vs. Nashville.
Eakin is “banged up” and missed today’s practice, but is expected to be in the lineup on Thursday vs. the Predators. Eakin has not recorded a point in the last five games and has four points (2G / 2A) in 12 games this season.
Fleury was set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, but is now locked up through the 2018-19 season. Fleury is playing on a $5 million cap-hit this season, that will bump up to $5.75 million for the next four seasons. Fleury is 7-2-0 with a 1.89 GAA and .931 SV% in his first nine starts this season.
Andersen missed Sunday’s game with ‘minor leg tightness’ but was on the ice for the game day skate this afternoon. He was the first on off of the ice and told the media after practice that his leg feels good but he “needs to see how I feel before tonight’s game”. So if Andersen’s leg is OK, he is your starter, if not, it will be Jason LaBarbera.
Andersen was unavailable on Sunday because of minor leg tightness, but he was back on the ice this morning for the game day skate. While he was the first one off, Jason LaBarbera followed him about a minute later. This suggests that Andersen will get the call if his leg is good to go, but they did not want to keep LaBarbera on for extra work incase Andresen is unable to go. Stay tuned.
Palmieri has yet to play this season because of a high-ankle sprain. He was only expected to miss a few weeks but the injury has lingered. His return to practice is a good sign that he is not far off though.
Aulie, who was recalled on Monday, will replace Martin Marincin in the lineup on Thursday vs. the Bruins. Aulie had one assist in eight games with Oklahoma City (AHL) before he was recalled. He is not know for his offence, so he is not fantasy relevant.
Vanek was recently demoted to the third line, but will be moved up to the top line with Mikael Granlund and Jason Pominville now that Parise is out. Vanek has one goal and seven assists in 11 games and his lack of scoring can be attributed to his lack of shots. He has just 17 shots so far this season— that is 1.55 S/PG, he averaged 3.56 last season.
Raffl suffered the injury blocking a shot on Tuesday night. He will miss a month and a half, which is a big blow for the Flyers because he was off to a hot start on their top line. With Raffl out, Chris VandeVelde will get the first crack at replacing him on that first line.
With Michael Raffl unavailable this morning because of an lower-body injury, VandeVelde filled-in on the Flyers first line with Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek. VandeVelde made the jump from the AHL to the first line in two weeks, pretty impressive.
McIlrath played 8:02 and record nine penalty minutes, two hits and three blocked shots in his season debut on Monday. With Kevin Klein ready to return to the lineup tonight, McIlrath had to go back to Hartford.
Connolly has started doing some light skating on his own and will likely try and ramp things up and return to practice in the next week or so. If that happens it would put him on track to be back in the middle of November.
