The St. Louis Blues on Friday loaned forward Ivan Barbashev to his junior team, the Moncton Wildcats of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

Barbashev, 18, was the Blues' second-round pick (No. 33) in the 2014 NHL Draft. He made his preseason debut Thursday and played 10:32 in a 5-4 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Barbashev has played the past two seasons in Moncton, scoring 43 goals and 130 points in 116 regular-season games.

Boston Bruins forward Milan Lucic, recovering from offseason wrist surgery, traveled with the team for two weekend preseason games and could see action Sautrday at the Detroit Red Wings.

"You want to get back out there and you're hoping you can get in [a game] sooner or later, but you don't want to put yourself in a position where you're going to be getting hurt," Lucic told the Bruins website Friday. "But again, we'll reassess it tonight and tomorrow morning and see where I'm at, and hopefully I can get into a game sooner [rather] than later."

Philadelphia Flyers center Sean Couturier has an upper-body injury and goaltender Ray Emery has a lower-body injury, general manager Ron Hextall announced Friday.

Couturier and Emery are day-to-day.

"No, I'm not concerned right now," Flyers coach Craig Berube told CSNPhilly.com. "I think we're OK."

Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop will play in his first game since late in the 2013-14 regular season when the Lightning host the Dallas Stars on Friday.

Bishop hasn't seen game action since he dislocated his elbow April 8 against the Toronto Maple Leafs, which caused him to miss the rest of the season. The Lightning were swept by the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and Bishop had surgery in late April to repair a torn ligament in his wrist, an injury sustained earlier in the season.

"I just want to get back into rhythm," Bishop told the Lightning website. "You want to start feeling the rushes and adjust to a real game."

Minnesota Wild forward Thomas Vanek and defenseman Keith Ballard are day-to-day, coach Mike Yeo said Friday.

Vanek played and scored a goal Thursday in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Yeo said he got bumped in the game, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and was too sore to practice Friday.  He's unlikely to play Saturday in a preseason game against the Winnipeg Jets at Xcel Energy Center.

The nature of Ballard's injury wasn't immediately known, but he is unlikely to play Saturday.

Chicago Blackhawks forwards Teuvo Teravainen, Joakim Nordstrom and Kris Versteeg are expected to make their preseason debuts Friday against the New York Rangers.

Teravainen and Nordstrom were day-to-day each with an upper-body injury. Teravainen, No. 5 on NHL.com's list of the Top 60 Prospects, scored two goals during Blackhawks scrimmages on Sept. 20 at Notre Dame but was injured following a hit from defenseman Cam Barker.

Forwards Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz will play in their first game of this preseason when the Pittsburgh Penguins host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday, coach Mike Johnston confirmed Friday.

Crosby and Kunitz each missed time at the beginning of training camp with unspecified injuries but have been skating for the past several days.

"Yeah, I feel good," Crosby said Friday. "It will be good to get in a game and get back in there. It's been a while."

NHL Live with Bill Pidto and Ken Daneyko, at 5 p.m. ET on NHL Network, will continue its 2014-15 season preview by focusing in on the New York Islanders and Arizona Coyotes.

Newsday reporter Arthur Staple will call in from Brooklyn, where the Islanders face the New Jersey Devils at Barclays Center in preseason action Friday.

Standout defenseman Keith Yandle will join the show to talk about the Coyotes.

Ottawa Senators forward Bobby Ryan said Thursday he got through his first preseason game pain-free after having offseason surgery to repair a sports hernia.

"Generally, last year I would get really, really sore towards 4 a.m., 5 a.m. ... that's when it would start to bother me all the way through to the morning," Ryan told the Ottawa Sun after practice Thursday. "Nothing last night, nothing this morning, and I felt pretty good on the ice today. So I was really, really pleased."

Goalie Antti Niemi will make his first start of the preseason Friday against the Arizona Coyotes, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

Niemi, who is in competition with Alex Stalock for the Sharks' No. 1 job, has not played since losing Game 7 of the Western Conference First Round to the Los Angeles Kings, a series San Jose led 3-0.

"No matter how well you do stuff before camp, when the camp starts, there's a different mindset," Niemi told the newspaper. "There's more speed on the ice, more pucks. Everybody's going way harder, so even though you'd like [to replicate that] before the camp, that's when it really starts."