BTT Injury Update: Marty Brodeur! Oh Noes!

Back to business as usual here:

-Martin Brodeur, originally believed to have an elbow bruise, announced earlier this week that he will miss the next 3-4 months due to surgery on the bicep of his catching arm. I'm glad that the Devils didn't beat around the bush with this injury *cough* Islanders *cough* and let their fans know that they would be missing Marty for a long time.

The Devils actually have one of the better backup situations in the NHL that isn't a traditional platoon. Obviously I would prefer to have say Josh Harding, Nikolai Khabibulin... maybe Conklin... and a few others but I still prefer Weekes to Auld/ Gerber and Budaj/ Raycroft.

Fantasy wise what does this mean? Well Kevin Weekes got his first win last night but his play was far from what you might call inspired and it was against the Lightning. Its going to take Weekes a while to shake off the rust but he has been a decent starter for both Carolina and the Rangers in the past. He's been run out of every city he's ever played in but he might be a fine stop gap. Where this hurts the Devils the most is someplace you might not expect... offense.

Weekes is not Brodeur in many ways, but perhaps most noticeably in his ability to handle the puck. Without Marty to make the breakout pass the powerplay is going to suffer immeasurably. The Devils are a troubled team right now. I wouldn't rush to pick up any Devils that might be on waivers (Elias and Parise excluded but Weekes and Paul Martin included) until we see how this is going to work.

- As reported earlier Rick Dipietro is... all messed up. Basically if there is a problem you can have from mid-thigh down Rick has it... oh yea... and his hip... and that concussion... This time its his left knee. 4-6 weeks for Ricky. My usual advice on Islanders goaltending, (as a reminder: not unless you are in a 30 team league that starts 3 goalies) applies. McDonald's win against the Rangers the other night is deceptive as the Rangers rarely were able to generate any consistent or dangerous pressure. There were a lot of shots but the majority came from the perimeter, artificially inflating his Sv %.

- Blue Jackets Goalie Pascal Leclaire is still out with an ankle injury and so Steve Mason got his first start of the season last night. It was a mixed bag in that he got the win but at no point felt like anything less then a liability in net. Mason still needs some seasoning in the AHL but the talent is definitely there. Despite my earlier advice on Norrenna I think you want to avoid Columbus goaltending altogether until Leclaire's return.

- Sergei Zubov who was supposed to be back somewhere around October 19, after offseason hip surgery has yet to make his return to the Dallas Stars. Zubov's absence is affecting the entire team starting with Phillippe Boucher and ending at Marty Turco. With the kind of struggles that Dallas is going through presently you have to believe that if Zubov could play he would. That makes me a little nervous if I'm a Zubov owner or a Stars fan.

That's it for injury updates this week, Ice Fishing coming at you shortly.