Injury Notes: Penguins, Coyotes, Oilers, Rangers, Capitals, Panthers, Flyers, Canadiens and Red Wings
  • Sarah McLellan: Coyotes Mike Smith is day-to-day. Mark Visentin has been called up. John Shannon: Smith had an MRI in Pittsburgh yesterday and will see a doctor in Phoenix on Friday.
  • Jim Matheson: Oilers Nail Yakupov has a broken ankle. He hurt it weeks ago and has missed three games. He could be skating on Friday.
  • Bob McKenzie: Rangers Chris Kreider is expected to be out at least a month with a hand injury, possibly a broken bone.
  • Capitals PR: Capitals Nicklas Backstrom suffered an upper-body injury last night.
  • George Richards: Panthers Erik Gudbranson will likely be back on Thursday.
  • Sarah Baicker: Flyers Steve Downie is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Coach Craig Berube doesn’t know when he’ll be ready to get back in the lineup.
  • Renaud Lavoie: Canadiens Dale Weise (wrist) met with a specialist yesterday. Chris Stevenson: Weise will be out two to three weeks. Travis Moen is out at least a week with a concussion. Brandon Prust is also out.
  • Bill Roose: Red Wings Tomas Jurco (rib) hopes to return as early as Thursday.
  • Ansar Khan of MLive: The Wings announced on March 5th that Pavel Datsyuk will be shut down for three weeks with a knee injury.

    “We’ll be at three weeks (Wednesday),” general manager Ken Holland said. “I’ll talk to the trainers and doctors to see what’s next, but right now he’s still going through the time he needs to give it a chance to heal.”

    GM Ken Holland on Stephen Weiss.

    “I think what’s going to happen is he’ll get a cortisone injection, hoping it relieves things,” Holland said. “We don’t know if it’s an inflammation or if it’s a different issue or if it’s scar tissue.

    “He feels OK going 65, 70, 75 percent, but when he pushes all-out he feels pain and when he gets pain you back off. He’s been told to push through. He’s pushed through. We’re going to give him another 72 hours and keep our fingers crossed that there’s some progress.”

    Henrik Zetterberg will definitely be out for the rest of the regular season.

    “At around eight weeks he’ll be cleared for physical contact (approximately April 11),” Holland said. “Before the end of the season he’ll be back skating, but I just don’t know when.”

    Daniel Cleary has knee issues but has been skating the past couple weeks.

    “He got some fluid on his knee, had it drained then he got some more fluid on his knee,” Holland said. “He feels better, but nowhere near where he needs it to be to talk about practicing every day and making a comeback.”