Wednesday Morning

by Anne

I like lists, don't you?

• Injury report: Drew Stafford has a "mild concussion" and Tony Lydman has a hand injury. Stafford may be ready for Saturday but Toni probably will not be.
  

• Does this make room for Myers? He's had a strong, not outstanding, but an improving-each-game kind of camp. Do we give him his 9 game stint? I say: yes. Especially with Toni being out.

• Cody McCormick cleared waivers and was sent to Portland. I am not surprised.

• With Stafford and without Mair, we have twelve forwards, leaving a roster spot for Tim Kennedy, who I feel has had a better camp than Gerbe. Not to say Gerbe didn't have a strong camp, but I'd give Kennedy the edge. They both picked up the pace towards the end of camp and started scoring some goals, much to everyone's relief.

• Leave Kennedy up, definitely, and once Mairsy comes back, we'll see what happens.

• Don't touch my Matty Ellis. :P

• The Florida Panthers AND Chicago Blackhawks lost to European teams on Tuesday. That's the first time an NHL team has lost in like 19 years and two lost on the same day. Well done, boys.
  

• Many are super pumped about the Canucks. As. Am. I. Contender? I'd say definitely more so this year than last. Luongo, Heniel, Danrick, Burrows, Kesler, Ehrhoff, and crew are looking good. The defense looks pretty solid, and the scoring is there, even with Demitra out.
  

• I'm a little less pumped for the Pens. I know pre-season is meaningless, but they had a really bad record in the pre-season.
  

• People are also pumped about the Kings. Ok, "pumped" may be a little strong, let's define pumped as "predicting the Kings might not suck as hard as last year or the year before." Terry Murray is about defense and some of the Kings are... less inclined to be defensively responsible. Some of their +/- from last season is.... paralyzingly bad. Speaking of such things:
  

• The Sunny Hedgehog Enchanters drafted yesterday and after some moves of some ill-advised draftees (who knew they all had such bad +/-?) the roster looks... ok?

• Highlights of the Sunny Hedgehog Enchanters (or SHE) would be three of its four namesakes: Rick Nash (aces) Drew Doughty (ummm....) and Matt Greene (don't judge me). Sadly, Schenner was not available and BabySchenn went back to Brandon. Also on the roster are Nick Lidstrom, Vinny Lecavalier, Dany Heatley, Phil Kessel and Sissy. My team can score, win faceoffs and hit. Goaltending? Ehhh maybe not so much... My trio includes Osgood, Quick and Bryzgalov. I'm not thrilled with that line-up.

• Also, I guess from some form of sentimentality, I drafted FIVE Kings. It's a really good think BabySchenn went back to juniors, I probably would've drafted HIM too. Their combined +/- is so unspeakably bad, I can't even think about it. Greener leads the way (and was #2 on the team last season) with a blistering +1. Yyyyeah, it's not good. Not Brind'amour bad, bad not even Lidstrom can counter-act all that negativity. I'm planning to unload Kopitar as soon as I can bully someone into taking him. Unless he suddenly starts playing defensive hockey, which is highly unlikely. Alas.
  

• I have a lot (like three) more defensemen than everyone else in my league. Should I be concerned about this?

• Can you tell I have NO IDEA what's going on in fantasy hockey?

• Speaking of fantasies... [;)] we're formatting this year's All-Stars of Hottness differently, as there is not All-Star Game. Instead we will be selecting the national teams of the United States and Canada.... and maybe Sweden. But not Russia, they're all too ugly. Remember, this is purely superficial.
  

• Team USA expects to announce their roster around December 30. I can't figure out when Team Canada announces their roster but I'm guessing it's right around then. We'll use December 30 as our date too. Look for that ballot to be posted by Thanksgiving and up for voting until Christmas. Nominations are accepted all the time, so submit some.

• Final roster cuts must be made by today at 3:00pm EST. Eek!
  

Greener's trying to keep his +/- "high" for SHE's sake.
Thank you, Matt Greene.