Joe Sakic will not be on the ice in Vancouver on Wednesday. Although his MRI was negative, he's not yet ready to go and did not make the trip to his home province. The next chance for him to play will be on Saturday in Edmonton. (The Oilers, by the way, claimed Jesse Boulerice of Lake Erie off of waivers today).
Tony Granato said in the above article that Arnason would play on Wednesday. With McCormick returning from his leave of absence (our condolences to him on his loss), that leaves one more forward to be scratched. It won't be TJ Hensick (or, it better not be). I'm guessing Marek Svatos or David Jones (I'd lean towards the former, as he watched most of the 3rd period from the bench on Saturday).
Before people go nuts with the anti-Arnason talk, I (as usual) think it's worth giving him a chance. I want to see how he responds to the scratch. If he still plays like a wet noodle after his first healthy scratch as an Av, then the gloves can come off. Until then, I'm anxious to see if the wake up call got through. Here's his reaction to the benching:
"In hockey, lots of things happen," Arnason said. "It's the nature of the game, I guess. What are you going to do, right? It was the coach's decision. I wasn't happy about it. It's the way it goes sometimes and you have to move on.
"The team pulled out a win, so it was good. I didn't play as good the first five (games), but lately I think I've played a little better."
Asked if he felt Granato was sending him a message, Arnason said: "I'm not sure if that's what they're doing, but it's been a long message. We'll see."
I have no idea what that last bit means. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes on the ice.