Injury Notes: Parros, Belesky, Thomas, Backstrom and Potter
  • Dave Stubbs of Hockey Inside/Out: Canadiens George Parros, out with a concussion, is “almost symptom-free.”

    “He is feeling good, doing a lot better,” Bergevin said, while cautioning that Parros shouldn’t be expected back on the ice imminently.

    “A concussion is a hard thing to gauge,” Bergevin said. “You could have a guy out a week or 10 days – (Brendan) Gallagher last year was quick but (Rene) Bourque and Raffi (Raphael Diaz) went longer. You never know with concussions. Overall we’re pretty happy with where George is at today, looking at everything that happened.

    “Every day is just a checklist. It’s to check the symptoms, a whole bunch of them – headaches, (sensitivity to) lights… He’s almost symptom-free as we speak. Every day is an evaluation because the next day could be worse but so far, it’s been going up every day.

    “I’m pretty confident that George will be back sooner than later.”

  • Eric Stephens: Ducks forward Matt Belesky is out today with an upper-body injury. He missed last Saturday’s game as well.
  • Harvey Fialkov of the Sun-Sentinel: Panthers goalie Tim Thomas was walking without a limp yesterday. Thomas said he felt pain in his groin when he made a quick side-to-side move. His groin felt much better yesterday and they won’t put him on the IR.
  • Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal: Oilers defenseman Corey Potter has been out since training camp with a bad back (facet-joint problems), has skated the past three days.

    “It was like they were sticking a knife in my back when I would do an extension. Hopefully that’s gone away,” said Potter, who was in a dogfight for a blueline spot before the back acted up on him.

    “Last workout back in Michigan before coming here. Perfect timing. Sleeping? That’s been terrible, too,” he said.