Bruins' Daniel Paille "feeling great"; not concussed and listed day-to-day

Not everyone who gets knocked cold has a concussion, just ask Daniel Paille.

The left winger on the Boston Bruins' fabled Merlot Line absorbed a brutal - but clean - hit from Buffalo Sabres' defenseman Jake McCabe during Boston's President's Trophy clinching win over Buffalo on Saturday afternoon - the 29-year-old so wobbly on his skates that he needed assistance to the room for evaluation...

...but Bruins' coach Claude Julien reported on Sunday morning that Paille was doing much better than when we last saw him doing the rubber chicken dance after McCabe flattened him.

Coach says Paille is "doing great" and is day to day ^JI
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) April 13, 2014

“We got some good news today,” Julien told beat writers. “He's feeling great, so it's just about going at it day-to-day here, but certainly real positive news.”


Perhaps "amazing news" would have been a more prudent way to put it, regardless, the news is welcome in that the Bruins' normally roll with four lines - their third and fourth lines are widely considered the best in the National Hockey League - but one would figure that a fourth line without one of it's main contributors would be cause for Julien to reduce it's ice time in the post-season.

Paille is an essential cog to the fourth line, averaging 12 minutes of ice time per game, matching his goals production with nine dimes and earning a plus-nine rating for the season.

Blues' Patrik Berglund joins half a dozen teammates on the shelf

Boy, when the St. Louis Blues fall apart, they don't screw around.

Losers of five straight, the Blues have also lost David Backes, T.J. Oshie, Vladimir Tarasenko, Derek Roy, Brenden Morrow and Vladimir Sobotka - and now they can add centerman Patrik Berglund to the growing list, as the second-line dish man left Friday night's loss to the Dallas Stars in the third period with an upper-body injury.

Of course, the Blues are being cryptic with the injury, but sources suspect either a shoulder or collarbone could be the issue.

It's sounding as if Berglund's injury is serious, and the #stlblues will be without seven of their top 12 forwards Sunday.
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) April 12, 2014

The 25-year-old has played in 78 games for the Blues this season, earning a plus-ten rating and scoring 32 points on 14 goals and 18 dimes while averaging 16:10 of ice time.  The injury means that Berglund almost certainly will not play in Sunday's season finale against Detroit, and may not be ready for the start of the post-season.

The Blues were until very recently considered the class of the Western Conference and were the favorites to win the President's Trophy, but now may not even win the Central Division title if the Colorado Avalanche beat the Ducks in Anaheim on Sunday - a tall task considering the Ducks must take at least one point to clinch the top seed in the West.

Should Colorado win in Anaheim, the surprising Avalanche will take the top seed - not bad for a team that many thought would be lucky to just make the playoffs when the season began.

Caps' Marcus Johansson's season ends with UBI

As if barely missing out on the playoffs wasn't painful enough, the Washington Capitals now have to endure injury added to insult.

Centerman Marcus Johansson left The Capitals' win over the coasting Chicago Blackhawks in the second period on Friday night, the result of taking a Nicklas Backstrom drive off of his left hand during a Caps' power play and did not return.

Playing in all but one match thus far in the season, the durable Johansson potted eight goals and laid down 36 dimes for 44 points which, unfortunately for the Caps. rated fourth highest on the team behind Alex Ovechkin, Backstrom and Joel Ward - and that's how his season will end, as Johansson has already been ruled out for Washington's season finale:

Marcus Johansson will miss Sunday’s season finale, Oates said.
— Katie Carrera (@kcarrera) April 12, 2014

Washington's first round pick in the 2009 entry draft, Johansson averaged 18:32 of ice time per game while earning an abysmal minus-twenty one rating.  Not as offensively minded as some on the team, the knock on Johansson all season has been his hestiancy to shoot the puck, putting just over a hundred on net for the season.

Johansson's status has not been updated since leaving the game.

Blues' David Backes day-to-day with LBI

The St. Louis Blues are in quite a spot.

Not only have they lost three consecutive games - giving up four goals in each - but now they may have to try and pull out of their late-season funk without team captain David Backes, whom the team lists as day-to-day with an unspecified lower body injury.

The centerman was injured when he took an Alexander Steen drive off of his foot during Tuesday night's 4-1 loss to the Washington Capitals, taking one more shift after suffering the injury, then departing for the room for evaluation and treatment.

No further word has emerged from the Blues regarding Backes' condition.

Though they are aided by the fact that their next opponent - the Minnesota Wild - has no motivation to do anything but prepare for their first round playoff opponent (and probably have no interest in trying to secure a higher seed that would cause them to match up with the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks), their last two opponents of the regular season have plenty still on the line and will be desperate.

After the Blues visit Minnesota, they travel to Dallas to face a Stars' who hold a precarious two-point lead over the Phoenix Coyotes for the final playoff spot in the west, then return home to find a Detroit Red Wings team that will be looking to move up to the sixth seed in the east - possibly even the fifth - to take on either the Canadiens or Lightning as opposed to remaining the seventh seed and having to deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round.

If the Blues can't manage some points out of their last three contests, they will surely miss out on the President's Trophy - which they probably would anyway given that the Boston Bruins have a three point lead with three games to go - but even worse, they could be overtaken by Anaheim or the surging Avalanche and be forced to face a scrappy Minnesota team or Los Angles in the first round.

Of course, missing Backes and his 27 goals and 57 points aren't a deal breaker in respect to holding onto the top spot in the Western Conference, but breaking the current losing funk they are in is imperative if they want to make noise in the playoffs - and they have only three games to find a cure.

Flyers' Zac Rinaldo receives four-game suspension for cheap shot

The National Hockey League got it right.

Buffalo Sabres' coach Ted Nolan announced on Monday that defenseman Chad Ruhwedel was done for the rest of the season after suffering a concussion, courtesy of an elbow to the jaw from Philadelphia Flyers' centerman Zac Rinaldo - so the league decided that the punishment should fit the crime.

Rinaldo's obvious targeting of the defenseless Ruhwedel's head earned him the same playing status as Buffalo's rookie blue liner, as the league handed down a four-game suspension, which means that Rinaldo is also done for the regular season.

"Rinaldo takes a poor angle of approach and does not make full body contact. Instead, he launches into Ruhwedel with force, picking his head and making it the main point of contact." - Statement from NHL Department of Player Safety

Rinaldo's suspension is without pay, meaning that the $15,384.60 that he would have earned in the four games now goes directly the the league's player emergency fund.

While the suspension is far from a landmark decision by the department, it is appropriate in terms of justice and in setting of precedence, wherein the suspension equals the amount of time lost by Ruhwedel - a policy for which is long overdue for a league that considers itself serious about the safety of it's players.

Of course, there has to be limits and the league should adopt a structure in which there are clear sentencing guidelines where intent is obvious, so as to both help the players remain safe on the ice as well as prevent any manipulation by the victim and his team to cause unjust punishment...

...which is perhaps a pipe dream due to a litany of factors contained in the latest CBA, so league discipline czar Brenden Shanahan's hands are tied somewhat, and it may never be a perfect system, but in this one particular case, the punishment does indeed fit the crime.

The Flyers can clinch a playoff berth on Tuesday night with a win over the Florida Panthers, but they hardly have the sixth seed locked up in the Eastern Conference playoffs, with Detroit and Columbus right on their tail - and their schedule is doing them no favors, with trips to Tampa and Pittsburgh on the docket later this week...

...and if the Flyers drop to the seventh or even eighth seed, they would have to face either Pittsburgh or Boston in the first round, which almost surely would mean a quick exit from the post-season.

But while Rinaldo isn't a deal breaker for Philadelphia making the playoffs, his absence could make the difference in whom they play, and maybe that would be enough of a punishment to make him think twice next time he sees an opening to cheap shot someone...

Sabres' Chad Ruhwedel likely done for year with concussion

Buffalo Sabres' defenseman Chad Ruhwedel has suffered a concussion at the hands - rather - the elbow of Philadelphia Flyers' centerman Zac Rinaldo and is probably done for the season - but to hear Rinaldo tell it, it makes one wonder who he thinks the victim actually is.

"That always happens with me. I get on a good streak and then something bad always happens." Rinaldo lamented to beat writers following Sunday night's blowout win over Buffalo. "I try not to think about it too much."

Well, Zac, the guys that make up the NHL's Department of Player Safety have been thinking about it, and the only way to deal with your obvious cheap shot - and the way in which it should be dealt with - is to suspend you for Philadelphia's final four games of the season.

It's only fair, right?  Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

To his due, Rinaldo did acknowledge guilt in the incident at the same time as trying to incite sympathy, something that may or may not help him when having his little chat with Brenden Shanahan on Monday afternoon.

"I had a lot of speed going at him. I put my shoulder down, and as he shot the puck my shoulder hit him clearly," Rinaldo admitted. "Proof is in the pudding right there. I shouldn't have done it. There's no need for it. We're up 4-0, but it's part of the game."

Well, maybe it would have helped him had he not said that delivering a cheap shot to a defenseless player's head is part of the game.

Ruhwedel was helped to the room after the incident early in the third period and coach Ted Nolan told writers after the game that his rookie defenseman had suffered a concussion - and given the league's mandate on concussion protocol that a player be symptom free for a week before resuming play, it goes to figure that Ruhwedel's season is over with just 4 games left to play.

The 23-year-old Ruhwedel has played well in his 21 games with the Sabres this season, logging nearly 19 minutes per game and has one assist and a minus-three rating in his role as a stay-at-home blue liner.

Flyers' Zac Rinaldo tossed from Sunday night's match with Sabres

They don't call them the "Broad Street Bullies" for nothing, but the head shot laid on Buffalo Sabres' Chad Ruhwedel on Sunday night by Philadelphia's Zac Rinaldo went beyond even the Flyers' sordid days of infamy.

Rinaldo initiated contact with Ruhwedel at the four and a half minute mark of the third period of Philadelphia's 5-2 win over Buffalo, launching himself at the Sabres' defenseman who was playing a puck from the high point, catching Buffalo's rookie with an elbow to the jaw.

Rinaldo was assessed an intent-to-injure match penalty and immediately escorted from the ice by the officials while Ruhwedel was helped to the bench and then to the room, suffering from a concussion.


Replays clearly show Rinaldo's blades leaving the ice in an obvious attempt to target the defenseless Ruhwedel, drawing the ire of Sabres' bench boss Ted Nolan.

"Those are the type of hits that we have to get rid of.  Those are not only dangerous hits but you're also putting a fellow player in jeopardy of his career." Nolan said to reporters after the game. "Head injuries, concussions, we all know how serious they are and we still have guys with flying elbows going directly to the head."

Rinaldo is scheduled for a hearing with the NHL's Department of Player Safety on Monday afternoon, and can most likely expect to have a few games off without pay for his goonish transgression, given that he's been called to the desk before, a fine for slew-footing and a suspension for charging within an eight-day period in 2012.

Luckily for Rinaldo and the Flyers - who with the two points gained by beating Buffalo is now just a point away from clinching a playoff berth - this infraction falls just outside of the 18 month period that would label Rinaldo a repeat offender within the scope of the NHL's safety rules - but those incidents will be taken into account when determining the length of the impending suspension.

Devils' Jonathan Merrill takes puck to the face

If New Jersey Devils' defenseman Jon Merrill doesn't do something to protect his face, the handsome rookie is going to end up looking like Chuck Wepner.

Known as "The Bayonne Bleeder", the New Jersey native and Sylvester Stallone's inspiration for his character in the classic "Rocky" film series, Wepner was known for blocking his opponent's punches with his face, in one fight against Sonny Liston taking so much punishment that it took 72 stitches to stop the leaking - Merrill is earning the same reputation, only on the ice.

In his NHL debut in early November, Merrill was on the ice for just 1:16 against the Minnesota Wild before he stumbled and slid face-first into the dashers, earning a concussion and several stitches in his face, prompting fellow blue liner Andy Greene to lament, "I saw him between periods and he had quite a few stitches and whatnot, but hopefully he's all right, Hopefully, he gets another go of it. You don't want it to be your first NHL game."

Well, he got another go of it and actually went 46 games between incidents, but on Saturday night the 22-year-old deflected a Travis Hamonic drive with just over seven minutes left in the Devils' overtime loss to the New York Islanders, the puck riding up and striking Merrill right in the mug.

Merrill was able to skate off the ice, but left a trail of blood as he departed, taking several stitches from the team's cut man.  A team spokesman issued a statement that Merrill was scheduled to see a doctor and a dentist and that his condition would be updated after the consultations and treatment.

Isles' Lubomir Visnovsky probably to end season on IR; Okposo day-to-day

After missing more than three months with a concussion, the New York Islanders' defenseman is back on the league's mandated protocol with a recurrence of symptoms.

The National Hockey League has very strict guidelines for teams to follow and criteria for players to meet before they are allowed to participate in game action following a concussion, and given that it took Visnovsky from the middle of October until late January to return from his last occurrence with the ailment, it is probably safe to assume the oft-injured blue liner is done for the year.

Visnovsky's injury was originally reported by the team as an upper-body ailment, suffered last Tuesday in the Islanders' 6-0 punking at the hands of the Minnesota Wild, and though a concussion is always suspected with such an ambiguous public diagnosis - particularly with Visnovsky - it wasn't confirmed until Monday.

The Islanders are merely playing out the string of this most disappointing season, their 63 points rendering them 17 points behind current seventh and eighth seeded Detroit and Toronto, respectively with just ten games left to play - and while that doesn't mathematically eliminate them from contention, it appears that the team has accepted their fate.

"It takes me longer to read the injury report now than anything else," Isles' coach Jack Capuano lamented. "It's extremely frustrating."

Capuano not only has Visnovsky on the skids, but also top line right winger Kyle Okposo who played through a lower-body injury in Sunday's 2-0 win over Columbus but missed Monday's practice with the ailment.  The team's leading scorer was injured in practice on Friday and made the trip with the team to North Carolina for Tuesday's game against the Hurricanes.

Henrik Sedin, Alex Burrows latest Canucks on the shelf

Catch up hockey is losing hockey, never has a more true axiom ever been spoken - and for the Vancouver Canucks, they'll have to try to catch up to the Western Conference's final playoff spot without two key contributors.

In fact, Henrik Sedin and Alex Burrows represents two-thirds of the Canucks' top line - rather, they did before Sedin left Sunday night's win over the Buffalo Sabres with a leg injury, preceded by Burrows, who took a nasty slash to his left hand courtesy of Nashville Predators' defenseman Shea Weber last Wednesday.

Just when the Canucks thought they would finally be healthy to make a perhaps ill-fated run at a playoff spot, their 76 points just three shy of the current eighth seeded Phoenix Coyotes - though the Desert Dogs have a game in hand and the Dallas Stars, who are also chasing the Coyotes and are one point up on the Canucks, have two games in hand.

Henrik and Daniel Sedin celebrate a goal with Alex Burrows (r)

Vancouver has a couple of things in their favor, however.

First, their schedule is a mixture of elite, playoff bound teams and doormats - and while they still have Cup hopefuls Anaheim and Colorado on their itinerary twice and the Los Angeles Kings once - four of the five games are on the Canucks' home ice, leaving games with Minnesota, the Avalanche and Edmonton on the road.

Secondly the Canucks have Daniel Sedin and Ryan Kesler back from injury - Daniel set to take his twin brother's spot on the top line and Kesler returning to his normal spot centering the second line.

Henrik's leg injury looked to be not much of anything initially as he got tangled up with Buffalo's Tyler Ennis between the red line and the end boards, then was shaking his leg as if there was a pebble in his skate as he glided off on one blade, but seemed to nearly collapse when he reached the bench with just over five minutes left in the second period.

He didn't return from the room for the final frame and now joins Burrows in the press box on a day-to-day basis - though Burrows ought to consider just staying in the press box for the final nine games for the sake of his own health.

Previous to this latest injury, Burrows has missed a total of 32 games with a broken foot, broken jaw and a sprained hand in this most forgettable of seasons for the veteran right winger.

Jets' Ondrej Pavelec day-to-day with LBI

Time is running out for the Winnipeg Jets to make a move to qualify for the playoffs.  So late in fact, that they've been forced to pull their goalie.

Starting netminder Ondrej Pavelec was absolutely porous in his last four starts before suffering what the Jets are calling a lower-body injury, and his goals against average and save percentage both flirting with mediocrity at 2.97 and .902 respectively. 

Al Montoya has been holding down the fort while Pavelec has been on the mend and sporting vastly superior numbers all the way across the board - but predictably, the results in the standings have been mixed as Montoya is 2-2-0 since he took over top billing after Pavelec left in the first period of the Jets' 4-2 loss to the New York Rangers on March 14th.

Overall, the Jets' haven't done themselves any favors down the stretch thus far, seemingly falling further out of the race with a 2-5-3 record in the month of March, including an 0-3-3 skid in the six games before Pavelec went down, and now are six points behind the Phoenix Coyotes for eighth seed in the Western Conference with just 10 games to play.

Needless to say, times are desperate for the Jets - even more so considering that their final ten games may be the toughest in the league with seven of those on the road and all but one against teams that currently qualify for the post season.

Pavelec will not play Monday night in Dallas, which is the first stop on a five game roadie that will go a long ways in deciding the Jets' playoff fate - with the California gauntlet of San Jose, Los Angeles and Anaheim next in succession before a date with the Coyotes in Phoenix, coach Paul Maurcie hoping that he's healthy enough for Thursday night's clash against the Kings.

Inching forward," Maurice said to reporters on Sunday of Pavelec's recovery. "He’s not playing tomorrow."

Leafs' Jonathan Bernier still day-to-day with groin strain

A low-grade groin strain doesn't sound like much, like maybe a day or two on the couch armed with a universal remote and a wide variety of technology to keep yourself entertained, at least three different brands of breakfast cereal and a fully stocked mini-fridge featuring a variety of snackage and a gallon of milk...

...but for anyone who's ever experienced a groin strain, they know that it's anything but a weekend in a bachelor pad, and if you happen to be a goaltender for a professional hockey team - well - let's just say that it takes more than just a couple of days on the coach before you can snap down into a butterfly without the unique pain compelling you to throw up.

Toronto Maples Leafs' goaltender Jonathan Bernier is experiencing this joyful ailment and has been since suffering the injury in the first period of a 3-2 win over the Kings in Los Angeles 10 days ago - and although he has been skating the past three days, the team left him behind when they traveled to New Jersey for Sunday night's faceoff against the Devils.

Reimer (r) has lost four straight since Bernier (l) has been on the shelf

"He's been skating but he still has some issues as far as he's not 100%, so until he's 100% he's not available to us," coach Randy Carlyle said on Saturday.

In his stead, the hard-luck James Reimer has been stationed between the pipes, allowing three goals or more in all four games since taking over for Bernier which, predictably, have been all losses - the Leafs falling to the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference playoff race with four teams withing two points of overtaking them.

By the same token, if the Leafs pull out of their funk, they are but two points shy of the New York Rangers for the sixth seed, and three behind Philadelphia for the fifth - so obviously it is not time to panic, but the first step in trying to ensure a post-season berth is to find a way to start winning games again, with or without their number one netminder.

Flames' Dennis Wideman lost for the season

The Calgary Flames made an effort to recover from a disastrous mid-season stretch to try to get back into the Western Conference playoff race, but now that their fate for an early start to their summer is all but set, they are setting things up for the offseason - which includes having veteran defenseman Dennis Wideman shutdown from his rehab for an upper-body injury.

Wideman suffered the mysterious ailment against the Ottawa Senators on March 5th - leaving the game after his first shift of the final frame - and hasn't seen the ice since.

All coach Bob Hartley has revealed is the aforementioned upper-body injury, and then on Thursday briefly addressed his blue liner's status going forward by telling reporters that Wideman “is shut down right now. It doesn’t very good for Wides until the end of the season.”

Originally projected to miss just a couple of games, Wideman's rehab has not produced the desired affect - so to shut down the rehab efforts in favor of rest and perhaps some sort of advanced treatment is in order, though because of the ambiguity displayed by the Flames, no one but Wideman and team doctors really know for sure.

Hartley says Wideman is a "long shot" to return before the end of the season.
— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) March 20, 2014

Playing in just 46 games on the season - same as last year's lockout shortened campaign - Wideman has four goals and 17 helpers while producing an abysmal minus-17 rating.

Wild's Jason Zucker out for season with Quad injury

After trying to work through a "fluky" knee injury for more than two months, the Minnesota Wild have shut down left winger Jason Zucker for the season.

Zucker took a puck just above the knee of the stick of Phoenix Coyotes' Shane Doan on January 9th and bounced between the press box and the ice until the Olympic break, when he went in for what was termed a "minor procedure" on the knee, but it turned out to be a quad injury instead.

“Honestly, it’s a fluky injury, one I’ve never heard of,” Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher said. “When they initially went in, it was worse than they thought. They fixed it, but he re-aggravated it while training.”

Quadriceps refer to a group of four muscles in the thigh that cover the femur from the front and sides, each of the muscles attached in some manner to the hip and ranging down to the knee cap. The injury is most likely related to the tendon on the femoris muscle, which takes the brunt of work to extend and straightening the knee.  It attaches to the kneecap from the top and works in conjunction to the Patella tendon attached to the kneecap from the tibia.

Fletcher noted that Zucker will need additional surgery to repair the tendon.

“It’s a setback, but he should be fine for next season,” Fletcher told reporters. “It’s frustrating it came to all this. I feel badly for the kid.”

The Wild are on course to make the playoffs despite sporting just a 3-2-4 record in the month of March, their 83 points good enough for the seventh seed in the Western Conference, four points better than current eighth seed Phoenix and eight points better than outside-looking-in Dallas Stars with 12 games to go.

Canucks' Chris Tanev to miss rest of season

This was supposed to be Vancouver Canucks' defenseman Chris Tanev's break out season, not broken season.

The 24-year-old blue liner had digits broken on his right hand for the second time this season on Monday in Tampa, taking a Steven Stamkos shot flush on the hand - and with the time table for his return set at three-to-four weeks, he may as well clean out his locker for the summer.

Tanev missed nearly all of the NHL's abbreviated February schedule due to a broken thumb and returned for a brief 10-game stand before the latest injury, but has still managed six goals and 11 helpers in 64 games this season as part of Vancouver's top defensive pairing and a solid presence on their penalty kill.

Regardless of the hard-luck injuries, the restricted free agent has most likely earned a pay raise on his current $1.5 million one-year deal as coach John Tortorella has demonstrated confidence in Tanev by lining him up against the league's top offensive threats, earning a plus-12 rating.

Were the Canucks to make the post-season, a highly doubtful occurrence given that they stand five games behind Phoenix for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference with 10 games to play and the Coyotes with two games in hand, it is possible that Tanev would be able to return...

...but a disastrous stretch that saw the Canucks' go 1-10-1 between late January and early march mandated that they fall out of contention - and even though they have stabilized and are playing better of late, they would have to win almost every game and have Phoenix fall of the planet to get into the playoffs.

Trio of Oilers doubtful for match with Buffalo Thursday night

Jordan Eberle is a hockey player.

Seriously, he is a hockey player, and a damned good one for the Minnesota Wild, as is Matt Hendricks - unfortunately both of them took lower body injuries for the team in Tuesday night's 5-1 rout of the Nashville Predators, Hendricks injured stepping in the path of a Shea Weber blue line rocket and Eberle blindsided by Ryan Ellis.

Neither is expected to play on Thursday night after their run-ins with the Predators' defensemen.

“I know our penalty killers," coach Dallas Eakins said after Wednesday morning's optional skate. "and this is right across the league, that if you’re playing Nashville, you’re telling your killer up there that he (Weber) can’t get the puck,”

“And if he does, you have to be that first layer of defense, you have to block the shot. And there are guys looking at us, saying, ‘Can’t the guy in the net stop it? He’s got all the pads on.’ But those are sacrifices that are extremely important and are extremely important for our team, where we’re at as a team and how we’re trying to grow.”

Sacrifice?  If you are stepping in front of a Weber shot, a blindfold and a cigarette should be standard issue.

The veteran centerman tried to continue, but the pain in the leg was just too much to overcome - not that Eakins is complaining. “Weber hit Hendy awfully hard,” Eakins said. “That shows Hendy’s mettle. He’s going to lay it on the line.”

And while Hendricks was forced to leave in the opening frame, Eberle managed to finish the game, potting two goals in the final frame playing on a bad right knee that he was seen walking around with an icepack attached to on Wednesday morning.  There were reports that the Oilers' second-leading scorer would be having an MRI, but that plan has been nixed by the team for now.

"We don't feel there's a need for one now," Eakins told reporters. "Not saying it's never, but the misinformation in the twitter world is always quite amazing. But he tweaked his knee, there's no MRI scheduled and we're hopeful he won't be out very long."

Eberle and Hendricks join the notoriously flaky Nail Yakupov on the shelf at least for Thursday night, Yakupov dealing with an ankle injury that has had him in and out of the lineup for the past three weeks after taking some friendly fire off of the stick of teammate Justin Schultz.

Stars' Rich Peverley has heart surgery; NHL career still in doubt

Dallas Stars' forward Rich Peverley will miss the rest of the season, at minimum, after undergoing heart surgery at the Cleveland Clinic on Tuesday morning.

"Rich Peverley underwent successful surgery to correct an abnormal heart rhythm at the Cleveland Clinic on Tuesday, March 18.  He is currently in normal sinus rhythm.  He was released from the Cleveland Clinic today and is expected to return to Dallas tomorrow.  He will be monitored closely and may require further treatment.  There is no decision being made at this time on his ability to return to hockey participation.” - Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill

Peverly was given CPR and hit with defibrillator paddles in the hallway of American Airlines Center in Dallas after he collapsed on the Stars' bench after finishing a shift six minutes into a match with the Columbus Blue Jackets on March 10th.  The game was postponed as the players and coaching staff were too shaken to continue.

It was revealed by emergency personnel that the paddles were not used to restore a regular heart rhythm after he collapsed, but to revive him after a quick triage on the bench revealed the veteran winger had no pulse at all.

Peverley has become somewhat of a poster child for the toughness of hockey players in the weeks since the "Cardiac Event", as the treating physician recanted to reporters that when Peverley regained consciousness he asked coach Lindy Ruff if the game was still in the first period and that he wanted to return to finish the game.

"First thing Rich asked me when I spoke to him – ‘How much time left in the period’ – you know, typical athlete,” said Ruff.

Peverley declined surgery in the offseason after a routine physical revealed an irregular heartbeat and opted for drug therapy instead - but the issue manifested during a game at Buffalo on March 3rd and missed the Stars' match the following night in Columbus.

He played in two games after that episode before the issue arose the night of the 10th.  Peverley spend two days in the hospital in Dallas before being released and attended a Stars' practice and a game before he traveled to Cleveland for his ablation procedure.

Red Wings' Jonathan Ericsson out rest of regular season with broken finger

The Detroit Red Wings' season of pain had another chapter written this morning as Defenseman Jonathan Ericsson underwent surgery to stabilize a broken finger and is expected to be out of the lineup for four-to-six weeks.

UPDATE: Jonathan Ericsson has undergone successful surgery. He's expected to miss 4-6 weeks #RedWings
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) March 19, 2014

"We get somebody hurt every day, and they never come back," coach Mike Babcock lamented on Wednesday.

Babcock is being pitifully sarcastic, but given the number of injuries the Red Wings have suffered this season, things probably seem that bad.  Already dealing with life without Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, Darren Helm, Justin Abdelkader, Joakim Andersson, Stephen Weiss and Tomas Jurko, the Wings have nevertheless been relatively healthy on the blue line - But Ericsson's injury breaks that streak.

Ericsson was injured in the second period of Detroit's 3-2 win over Toronto on Tuesday night - a victory that has become is important in Hockeytown these days with all of the injuries, and it should be considered a minor miracle that the Red Wings are just one point out of the Eastern Conference's second wild card entry, hanging tough with a 5-4-1 record since the Olympic Break.

 Ericsson isn't much on the offensive end, sporting just one goal and 10 helpers in 48 games, but he eats a significant number of minutes on the blue line.

"It's tough; he's one of our top D-men," goaltender Jimmy Howard said after the win. "You kind of shake your head; hopefully we don't lose another guy because now it's just getting to be mind-boggling."

It was mind-boggling before, Jimmy - now it's bordering on ridiculous.

Ducks purposely capricious about Cam Fowler's lower body injury

The Anaheim Ducks blue line has been without it's top blue liner since the second period of Friday night's win at Colorado, and may be without him for a while longer, pending the results of an MRI on his leg scheduled for Tuesday...

...or not.  The Ducks are being ultra-secretive regarding Fowler's injury - either that or no one really cares because not even the closest of beat writers have a clue what's happening with the 22-year-old.

Cam Fowler left Friday night's game with a designation of day-to-day with a lower body injury, missing Saturday's win over the Los Angeles Kings and Tuesday's loss to the Capitals, and was spotted wearing a knee brace - but no mention of whether he was seen with Elvis or Jimmy Hoffa.

In all seriousness, the floundering Ducks have plenty to worry about these days, their 3-3-2 record since returning from the Olympic break includes the sudden and disturbing loss of their previously invincible home ice advantage - as their 4-7-2 home record since losing their first home game to the Winnipeg Jets on January 21st indicates.

Why the change in fortune?  Perhaps the constant shuffling of defensemen by coach Bruce Boudreau since Luca Sbisa came off of the IR, particularly where the blue collar Mark Fistric and rookie sensation Sami Vatenen are concerned.

Fortunately just four of their final 12 games are against teams headed for the playoffs and should be able to hold on to one of the top three seeds in the Western Conference playoff race, but may not be able to hold off the surging San Jose Sharks for the Pacific Division title.

What does this have to do with Cam Fowler?  Nothing really, they just miss him being on the ice - but they went into their funk long before Fowler's unspecified lower body injury occurred.

Bruins' Johnny Boychuk to miss second straight game

Johnny Rocket has been scrubbed from one mission, and perhaps will be grounded for another on Tuesday.  But don't count him out for very long.

Boston Bruins' defenseman Johnny Boychuk left Saturday's afternoon matinee after being guided into the end boards by the Hurricane's Patrick Dwyer - blades first - striking awkwardly, then lay prone on the ice while absorbing the initial wave of pain before skating off gingerly, as it were...

...only to return for more punishment, as on the very next shift, the Rocket took a puck off the same foot and again hit the ice in agony before limping off, using his stick an an impromptu cane.

“I mean, after you get hit with a slap shot it’s more laughter I guess," Boychuk said after the game. "because it’s just you can’t really do anything but laugh because you get it on the same side that it hurts so bad. You just have to laugh at it.”

Once the adrenalin from the game wore off, it's pretty certain that Boychuk wasn't in the laughing mood, nor was he on Monday morning when he showed up for the team's skate and couldn't go.

"He didn't skate this morning because he can't," bench boss Claude Julien said on Monday morning. "Right now he's too sore, so he's day-to-day. It's from obviously the incident, and so he couldn't skate this morning. He came in early and we tried to see if he could and he couldn't."

There is no reported structural damage to the foot, and he was seen walking around the locker room in New Jersey on Tuesday afternoon without a noticeable limp, but Julien will hold him out at least once more game.

No Johnny Boychuk tonight, per Claude Julien. Still having discomfort putting his foot in skating boot. Maybe later in the wk #BruinsTalk
— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) March 18, 2014

Boychuk should still be considered day-to-day, because he is a hockey player, after all, and he laughs at pain.