Update (1:59 PM): Ansar Khan has a little more on Draper. – Matt
Update (1:39 PM): MacLeod has updated his post to say that Cleary is in tomorrow, while Draper is still out with that mysterious upper body injury. Apparently Cleary was held out of practice as something of a precautionary measure.
I’d really like to know what’s going on with Draper. Such a strange situation. - Matt
Bruce MacLeod reports that Dan Cleary didn’t skate today, but has no information on why. Given the beating Cleary’s taken so far in this series, it’s not that surprising he’d skip out. MacLeod promises to update later.
Apparently, Kris Draper skated in Cleary’s place on the Zetterberg line. That would seem to indicate Draper is out tomorrow, since he’d probably be skating on the fourth line if he were going to play in place of Kirk Maltby or Darren Helm. If Cleary can’t go and Draper is going to return as a result, it’s highly unlikely he’d do it as part of the second line. More likely, the units would get shuffled.
So my guess is Cleary’s in, and Draper’s still out.
Looks like you’re right, according to St. James, Babcock says Drapes is still out and Cleary is still in. I don’t expect to see Draper in this series now unless it starts going badly in a hurry (which I don’t see happening, but you never know) and they need to change things up, assuming he gets healthy enough to play.