This article is part of our The Daily Puck series.
Around the Rink
I'm still smarting from losing all three -- I mean, really, come on, did it have to be all three?! -- of my fantasy football playoff matchups, so let's just do a few quick hits and get right into Tuesday's action.
1. RotoWire's resident Pens fan John Toperzer covered the shakeup in Pittsburgh in the Monday Daily Puck, but I have some experience with new coach Mike Sullivan, who used to be John Tortorella's assistant with my Rangers. Sully's done a brilliant job leading the Pens' AHL affiliate this year, as they've barely lost any games, and it's no surprise to see him end up at the helm of one of the NHL's premier teams. Outside of Torts' arguments with Larry Brooks of the New York Daily News, Sullivan was arguably the best part of the package the vitriolic coach brought to the table in New York. When the Rangers fired Tortorella, it was Sullivan who I was truly sad to see go – the guy has a great hockey mind, and the Penguins will appreciate his presence. Now's a good time to buy low on Sidney Crosby if you can.
2. The Jackets welcomed a new goalie to the net Monday night, as Joonas Korpisalo made 27 saves en route to a tough loss against Tampa in his NHL debut. He's not my recommended pickup at the bottom here because he's only going to have value in the short term, but Sergei Bobrovsky (groin) is expected to be out until around the new year and Curtis McElhinney is, in two words, not good. I would not be surprised at all to see Korpisalo take over a majority of the starts for the rest of December.
3. Can Logan Couture catch a break? Guy breaks his leg in the third game of the season, comes back, and promptly gets an artery in his thigh cut open in just his second game back. Now he's out two weeks at minimum, and it could be more; no clear timeline's been established. The Sharks had been playing quite well without him, but the loss of Couture's two-way game on the top line has finally caught up with them, resulting in six consecutive losses.
Projected Goalie Starters (all times Eastern)
Devils (Cory Schneider) at Sabres (Linus Ullmark), 7:00 PM
Panthers (Roberto Luongo) at Islanders (Jaroslav Halak), 7:00 PM
Oilers (Anders Nilsson) at Rangers (Henrik Lundqvist), 7:00 PM
Hurricanes (Cam Ward) at Flyers (Steve Mason), 7:00 PM
Lightning (Andrei Vasilevskiy) at Maple Leafs (Jonathan Bernier), 7:30 PM
Sharks (Martin Jones) at Canadiens (Dustin Tokarski), 7:30 PM
Flames (Karri Ramo) at Predators (Pekka Rinne), 8:00 PM
Canucks (Ryan Miller) at Wild (Darcy Kuemper), 8:00 PM
Blues (Jake Allen) at Jets (Connor Hellebuyck), 8:00 PM
Avalanche (Semyon Varlamov) at Blackhawks (Corey Crawford), 8:30 PM
Blue Jackets (Curtis McElhinney) at Stars (Antti Niemi), 8:30 PM
For updates on the projected goalies later in the day, check out our Projected Goalies Grid.
Injury News for Teams Playing Tuesday
New Jersey Devils
Travis Zajac, C (upper body) – Didn't play over weekend; no word on Tuesday
Adam Henrique, C (lower body) – Could be back in Tuesday
Bobby Farnham, LW (upper body) – On IR; no clear timeline
Tuomo Ruutu, LW (foot) – Approaching original return date
Buffalo Sabres
Cody McCormick, C (blood clots) – No timetable
Tyler Ennis, LW (upper body) – Skating, but still week-to-week
Robin Lehner, G (ankle) – Still not practicing
Mark Pysyk, D (lower body) – Remains week-to-week
Florida Panthers
Jaromir Jagr, RW (illness) – Didn't practice Monday
Derek MacKenzie, C (lower body) – Day-to-day
Dave Bolland, C (illness) – Also didn't practice Monday
Aleksander Barkov, C (illness) – No practice Monday; think it's going around?
Reilly Smith, RW (illness) – My god, they're dropping like flies!
Steve Kampfer, D (lower body) – Not traveling with team
Nick Bjugstad, C (upper body) – On IR; not playing on road trip
Alex Petrovic, D (foot) – Skated Friday before practice
New York Islanders
Ryan Strome, C (upper body) – Returned to practice Monday
Edmonton Oilers
Rob Klinkhammer, LW (lower body) – Not ready to rejoin lineup
Oscar Klefbom, D (finger) – Not traveling with team
Nail Yakupov, RW (ankle) – No word on return, so probably at least another week
Connor McDavid, C (shoulder) – Could be back at some point in January
Benoit Pouliot, LW (lower body) – Getting close to returning
New York Rangers
Dan Girardi, D (knee) – Won't go Tuesday
Derek Stepan, C (ribs) – Day-to-day, but won't play Tuesday
Kevin Klein, D (oblique) – Will not return Tuesday
Carolina Hurricanes
James Wisniewski, D (knee) – Out another four months yet
Nathan Gerbe, LW (lower body) – Out another week or three
Philadelphia Flyers
Luke Schenn, D (lower body) – Out another week-ish
Mark Streit, D (groin) – Skating, but out another week or two yet
Sam Gagner, C (concussion) – No word on status, but eligible to return Tuesday
Vincent Lecavalier, C (back) – Timeline unclear; do they even want him to play?
Tampa Bay Lightning
Tyler Johnson, C (undisclosed) – On IR; doubtful for entire road trip
Ondrej Palat, LW (undisclosed) – Ruled out for rest of road trip
Jonathan Drouin, C (lower body) – Also not traveling with team
Cedric Paquette, C (upper body) – Same deal
Erik Condra, RW (lower body) – Unlikely to appear on road trip also
Toronto Maple Leafs
James Reimer, G (groin) – Team intends to exercise caution
Joffrey Lupul, LW (lower body) – Practiced Monday; Tuesday return possible
Stephane Robidas, D (knee) – Still not back to practice
San Jose Sharks
Logan Couture, C (thigh) – Out for entirety of the Sharks' lengthy road trip
Matthew Nieto, LW (lower body) – Didn't play Saturday, but could be back in Tuesday
Raffi Torres, LW (suspension) – Will rejoin team Jan. 14
Montreal Canadiens
Carey Price, G (leg) – Out about another month
Torrey Mitchell, C (lower body) – Will be back in there Tuesday
Devante Smith-Pelly, RW (lower body) – Won't practice in full for at least a week more
Brendan Gallagher, RW (fingers) – Skated Monday for first time since injury
Calgary Flames
Lance Bouma, C (lower leg) – Joining team on road trip; precise return date unclear
Kevin Poulin, G (knee) – Out a matter of weeks still
Jon Gillies, G (hip) – Out 4-to-6 months
Nashville Predators
Gabriel Bourque, LW (lower body) – No timetable offered
Mike Fisher, C (lower body) – Return date unclear
Colin Wilson, LW (lower body) – Remains day-to-day
Vancouver Canucks
Dan Hamhuis, D (face) – Out two months
Brandon Sutter, C (abdomen) – Out another 2-to-4 weeks
Luca Sbisa, D (hand) – Out about a couple more weeks
Minnesota Wild
Zac Dalpe, C (hip) – Still about four months off
Devan Dubnyk, G (groin) – Returned to practice Monday
St. Louis Blues
Steve Ott, C (hamstring) – Out three months
Jaden Schwartz, LW (ankle) – About another month or so yet
Patrik Berglund, C (shoulder) – Continues lingering on LTIR
Winnipeg Jets
Ondrej Pavelec, G (knee) – Out into January or February
Colorado Avalanche
Brad Stuart, D (back) – Hasn't played in a month-plus; no updates
Jesse Winchester, LW (concussion) – Lingering on IR
Ben Street, C (chest) – No timetable
Chicago Blackhawks
None
Columbus Blue Jackets
Rene Bourque, LW (undisclosed) – Well past original timeline, but remains out
Cody Goloubef, D (jaw) – Out another three weeks or so
Sergei Bobrovsky, G (groin) – Out into January
Markus Hannikainen, RW (shoulder) – Out at least six more weeks
Dallas Stars
None
Hot
Justin Faulk, D, CAR – Like, red-hot. Faulk has a four-game point streak going and has notched two points in each of the last three, making Carolina fans and fantasy owners forget about the brief skid he was in before that. The goal-scoring leader among defensemen isn't Erik Karlsson or Brent Burns or Shea Weber or Dustin Byfuglien – it's Faulk, toiling away for a Hurricanes team that doesn't get a lot of national notice. And every single one of those goals has been scored on the power play. That's insane.
Claude Giroux, C, PHI – We knew at least one of the Flyers' stars had it in him to erase a cold start, and Giroux's the one. Philly's still waiting for Jakub Voracek to wake up, but Giroux's had no problems loading up points without him recently – a dozen in his last nine games alone, including six in the last three. After opening with precious few points by his standards in October and early November, we're seeing the normal Giroux again – he's almost back to a point-per-game pace.
Cold
Seth Jones, D, NAS – As one of the top talents in his draft class, you'll find Jones rostered in many a fantasy format, but it's becoming increasingly questionable whether that should continue to be the case. The 21-year-old blueliner is big and has tons of tools, but he's not using that size well – just 25 hits in 30 games – and he's not scoring either. In fact, since ripping off five points in three games Nov. 10-14, Jones hasn't appeared on the scoresheet a single time. That's 14 straight scoreless games for former NBA star Popeye Jones' kid (and Donovan McNabb's nephew), and he's starting to see his ice time slip under 20 minutes much more often than over. While he's still seeing power-play time and clearly has upside, it's awfully hard to roll Jones out in almost any fantasy lineup as things stand currently.
Recommended Pickup
Trevor Daley, D, PIT – Coming off a 16-goal season (and nine the year before), expectations were reasonably high for Daley after he was dealt to Chicago over the summer, but he was a train wreck with the 'Hawks, missing a number of games to injury and mostly playing bottom-pairing minutes along the way. The move to a Pittsburgh team that's been simply awful on the blue line should almost guarantee a top-four role for Daley – maybe even a temporary assignment next to Olli Maata on the top pair – and he's sure to see power-play time, which ought to let him unleash that booming shot. Daley's been cut loose in a lot of leagues, so you can grab this guy who probably went in the middle rounds of your draft for nothing.
