The Daily Puck: Miikka on Fire

Projected Goalie Starters

Florida (Tomas Vokoun) at New Jersey (Johan Hedberg), 7:00 p.m. ET
Buffalo (Ryan Miller) at Pittsburgh (Marc-Andre Fleury), 7:00 p.m. ET
Columbus (Steve Mason) at Detroit (Jimmy Howard), 7:30 p.m. ET
Washington (Semyon Varlamov) at Tampa Bay (Dwayne Roloson), 7:30 p.m. ET
Edmonton (Devan Dubnyk) at St. Louis (Jaroslav Halak), 8:00 p.m. ET
Chicago (Marty Turco) at Vancouver (Roberto Luongo), 10:00 p.m. ET

Injuries for Teams Playing Friday

Day-to-Day (Includes DL players close to returning)
Evgeni Malkin (C) Pittsburgh – (Sinus) Expected to play Friday versus Buffalo.
Patrick Kaleta (W) Buffalo -- (Hand) Doubtful to play Friday.
Tomas Holmstrom (D) Detroit – (Hand) Out for Friday, questionable to play Saturday.
Alexander Semin (W) Washington – (Thigh) Practicing with team, but questionable to play Friday.
Ryan Malone (W) Tampa Bay - (Mid-body) Questionable to play Friday.
Jordan Eberle (W) Edmonton - (Ankle) Expected to play Friday.
Linus Omark (W) Edmonton - (Head) Unlikely to play Friday.
Kevin Bieksa (D) Vancouver - (Ankle) Questionable to play Friday.

Long Term or IR
Evgeny Dadonov (W) Florida -- (Finger) Out at least a month.
Tim Connolly (C) Buffalo – (Hip) Expected to be activated and play Friday versus Pittsburgh.
Sidney Crosby (C) Pittsburgh – (Concussion) Left team to spend time with family, still no definitive timetable for his return.
Pavel Datsyuk (C) Detroit – (Hand) Out for Friday, doubtful for Saturday.
Alexander Edler (D) Vancouver - (Back) Out until at least April.
Sami Salo (D) Vancouver - (Achilles) On a conditioning stint in the AHL.

Transactions

Tobias Enstrom (D) Atlanta – Placed on IR.
John Moore (D) Columbus –Recalled from the AHL.
Dylan Reese (D) Islanders– Re-assigned to the AHL.
Kris Newbury (C) Rangers – Re-assigned to the AHL.
Colin Greening (C) Ottawa –Re-assigned to the AHL.
Zach Hamill (C) Boston –Recalled from the AHL.
Alexander Urbom (D) New Jersey – Re-assigned to the AHL.
Lance Bouma (C) Calgary –Recalled from the AHL.
Sami Salo (D) Vancouver – Assigned to the AHL on a conditioning stint.
Mike Smith (G) Tampa Bay – Cleared waivers, assigned to the AHL.

Hot

Ryan Kesler (C) Vancouver – When looking at the Canucks everyone automatically thinks about the Sedin twins, Alexandre Burrows, probably even Roberto Luongo, but Kesler sort of fades into the background. Well with 30 goals and 50 points in 52 games that is all about to change. He has quickly become an offensive force to be reckoned with, scoring not only power-play goals, but shorthanded and even-strength ones as well.

Miikka Kiprusoff (G) Calgary – Well don't look now but Kiprusoff has been on fire lately, winning five straight games and allowing only nine goals in those five games. He has led the Flames back into the playoff picture and looks to be playing as well as he ever has. If you're looking to acquire a top-notch goalie but not at a top-notch price, Miikka could be your guy.

Cold

Chris Drury (C) Rangers– Drury has zero goals in 23 games this season. That's not a misprint, zero as in zilch, nada, donut, etc. How the mighty have fallen. Now he is playing on the fourth line, relegated to taking defensive zone face-offs and killing penalties, all while playing less than 10 minutes a game and earning about $7 million a season. Ouch.

Corey Crawford (G) Chicago – It's not that Crawford has played all that bad lately, but the fact that Marty Turco will start his second straight game after the All-Star break has to be of major concern to Crawford owners. It's not like Turco played all that well Tuesday, giving up four goals on 29 shots, so it sure seems that coach Joel Quennville wants to give Turco another shot at the starting job.

Recommended Pickup

Michael Grabner (W) Islanders – I know what you're thinking: how can you recommend anyone from the Islanders? Well Grabner has six goals in his last nine contests and his game seems to be improving as the season rolls along. What's even better for fantasy owners is that he is starting not only to see more ice time, but also time on the power play. Grabner is looking more and more like this season's Matt Moulson for the Isles, and as we saw at the skills competition, he has speed to burn.