Dose: Hall of a Weekend

Gotta say, this was a weird weekend, and not just because a bonus hour just sort of plopped in our laps.

Bad teams earned wins, sometimes against legitimate opponents. Faulty goalies grabbed shutouts. Quite a few injuries leave other squads reeling.

It’s enough of a brain-full that I recommend scrolling through Rotoworld’s NHL news page and Pro Hockey Talk, as it could be tough to provide a comprehensive breakdown of all the things that happened. With that disclaimer out of the way, let me try to hit as many of the high points as possible.

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SOME BIG INJURIES

Let’s go in alphabetical order. If a team isn’t listed, consider them lucky (or their injuries not quite important enough.)

Anaheim: In the span of a weekend, both Frederik Andersen and John Gibson came up gimpy. The time/cause of Andersen’s issue seems a little cloudier, while Gibson got hurt in the most kick-in-the-gut moment for fantasy owners: during warm-ups. Consider them both day-to-day at the moment and their situation quite the pain to deal with in general. (Though they’re possibly worth the trouble overall, as they haven’t been high picks and they play for a contender.)

Boston: David Krejci’s still a little banged up, it seems.

Calgary: The Flames are suffering from a slew of injuries at forward (Joe Colborne’s the latest guy to go on IR), opening up a chance for falling prospect Sven Baertschi to finally make a positive impact.

Columbus: Nothing new here, really, but it feels wrong to leave the Blue Jackets out of any injury discussion.

Dallas: Death, taxes and a nagging Ales Hemsky injury. It’s almost comforting in a weird way at this point, isn’t it? In a time of change …

Detroit: Huzzah, Johan Franzen is back! Less huzzah: they lost to the Buffalo Sabres last night.

Edmonton: Here’s one of the biggest blows of the weekend: Taylor Hall crashed the net in true sprawling Taylor Hall fashion, suffering an MCL injury. The team estimates that he’ll miss 2-4 weeks. The Oilers already face an irregular November schedule - road trips and homestands in staggering waves - so Hall’s absence obviously hurts. That said, considering the Steve Stamkos-like crash into the net, missing him for mere weeks actually seems like they’re dodging a bullet.

The Oilers have a lot of options at wing, even if none are at Hall’s level. From the sound of things, Nail Yakupov and David Perron may be the initial beneficiaries of increased reps, with Yakupov possibly getting a spin on the first line.

Yakupov’s siren call of No. 1 pick talent has suckered in plenty of fantasy owners (understandably, really), but at some point he needs to actually start producing, at least if he wants to get a nice raise on his entry-level deal (which expires after this season). He certainly has the sexy shot and more enticing imaginary potential.

Perron’s probably a safer bet in more peripheral-oriented leagues. He gets hits, PIMs, SOG and decent points, though he likely won’t match his 2013-14 numbers. Both are at least worthy of a spot on your watch list.

Los Angeles: Anze Kopitar and Marian Gaborik are back (the latter of which seemingly inspires a “for now”).

Rangers: Jeez, what a weekend for the Rangers. Ryan McDonagh is expected to miss 3-4 weeks. Kevin Klein’s lower-body injury (foot, I believe?) was too swollen on Sunday to get a read on how it is. John Moore isn’t eligible to return to action until Nov. 11 because of a suspension. (Click the link at the bottom of this section for more suspension bits, from Alex Burrows to Anton Volchenkov.)

Dan Boyle did practice in a no-contact jersey alongside Derek Stepan, yet it sounds like Boyle might take a while.

That leaves a pretty threadbare Rangers defense. Honestly, I feel like I need to see this team in action - who gets PP time, who gets the most minutes beyond the few usual suspects remaining - to really get a grasp on this situation. Yup, it’s that bad.

St. Louis: Not as much injuries as illness - a bug was/is going around the St. Louis locker room, so keep an eye out for late-game scratches and the like.

Toronto: Joffrey Lupul just can’t get a break (unless we’re taking things literally, as in bones). Lupul's loss (he's expected to miss about three weeks) jumbles up the Maple Leafs lines, including separating Phil Kessel and James van Riemsdyk, which is a sad phrase to even type.

I wouldn't be surprised to see quite the array of different combos, but for now Toronto's one-two punch seems to be Nazem Kadri - Kessel and Tyler Bozak - JVR.

Personally, I'd keep JVR and Kessel together and just hope for other combinations to work out, but either way the Maple Leafs could be in a bind.

For a full list of injuries and suspensions, click here. Go to Rotoworld's NHL page for breaking hockey news and more.

HOPE FOR THE WEAK

Sheesh, what an odd weekend as far as lowly teams gaining heartwarming wins.

-- The Maple Leafs won both of their games, including beating a fresh Chicago team on the end of a back-to-back.

-- The Calgary Flames beat the Nashville Predators and Montreal Canadiens, the latter of which being quite the pasting. I don't think the Flames are awful, but they continue to be better than I expected.

-- The Los Angeles Kings are now on an ugly four-game losing streak and are 0-3-2 on the road.

-- Cam Ward got a shutout and won back-to-back games. Sure, one of them came against the vat of despair that is Arizona (we can probably hold off the Barry Trotz coronation for a while now that the Capitals are just 4-7-0, can't we?).

-- The Winnipeg Jets received the gift of one shutout apiece from goalies Ondrej Pavelec and Michael Hutchinson.

Let those last two points sink in for a moment. Yeah, it was a strange weekend.