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In hockey, they don't ask "How"?
They ask "How many"?
On Friday night, Sabres number one goalie Robin Lehner made his long-anticipated return to the goal crease after a four month layoff due to a serious injury that he suffered in the season opener on October 8.
Understandably, Lehner looked wobbly and uncomfortable in the early going.
Lehner earned the win in his first game back in the AHL since the 2012-13 campaign when he played for the Binghamton Senators.
He allowed three goals on the first nine shots that he faced.
In the end, his Amerks teammates scored a 5-4 win over the Hershey Bears.
Lehner made 24 saves in his first rehab ad conditioning start in AHL Rochester.
“I felt pretty good,” Lehner said. “Four goals, but I thought three of them were a little bit lucky. I felt like I was in position for all of them but the breakaway. I missed his a little bit. It felt as good as it’s going to be after almost a year without a full game. I felt like I got better as the game went on. I felt calm.”
If it weren't for bad luck Lehner would have no luck at all.
The big Swede suffered a season-ending concussion when then Ottawa Senators teammate Clarke MacArthur collided with him on February 16, 2015.
On October 8, Lehner suffered high ankle sprain (right) just 27:30 minutes into his Sabres debut against his former team the Ottawa Senators.
Lehner original prognosis had him returning after 8-10 weeks, however, he suffered a setback in his recovery which moved his return date to January 8.
“It’s been frustrating,” Lehner said. “It’s been a tough period of my life. … I haven’t been injured before like that, and I got two consecutive ones and two pretty serious ones. It was not easy to go through. I had a high ankle sprain, which is pretty terrible for a goalie to get back. I’m probably going to have pain in my foot for the rest of the year.”
Lehner plans on taking the net again Sunday when Rochester hosts the Jonathon Drouin and the Syracuse Crunch.
Dan Catenacci broke a 4-4 tie just 51 seconds into third period and the Amerks celebrated their historic 60th anniversary season with a 5-4 win over the Hershey Bears in front of a season-high 9,536 fans and nearly three dozen Alumni at The Blue Cross Arena.
The win snaps a two-game skid for Rochester, which improves to 16-15-2-1 on the season.
Phil Varone led the way offensively with a season-high four-point night (1G, 3A).
Evan Rodrigues added three points (1G, 2A) and Cal O’Reilly finished with a goal and an assist.
Nick Baptiste scored his seventh goal of the season. Like Lehner, Mark Pysyk joined the Amerks on Thursday for the beginning of a conditioning assignment from the parent Buffalo Sabres. Pysyk suffered a broke to in November and hasn't played for the Sabres since. Pysyk was +1 and played as well as could be expected after such a long layoff.
If Lehner and Pysyk grade out successfully in Rochester, they may be in the Buffalo lineup when the Boston Bruins come calling.
The Amerks travel to Binghamton on Saturday night and host Syracuse on Sunday afternoon.
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Jonathon Drouin is in beast mode tonight!
He certainly hasn't damaged his trade value, that's for sure.
Last Saturday, Tampa GM Steve Yzerman sent the kid to Syracuse. On Sunday, Drouin's agent cleared his throat and made public the trade request that he made on behalf of his client to the Bolts in November.
Drouin has scored two beautiful goals in the first period against Albany. In so doing, Drouin is telling Yzerman and Bolts head coach Jon Cooper where to go and how to get there.
It's important to note that Drouin is playing center tonight, not his natural left wing position. He's showing that he is versatile and playing multiple positions makes him more valuable to other teams.
I'm told that there are more than 10 NHL scouts in the building to watch Drouin.
There will be more scouts and NHL execs in attendance to Syracuse games on Saturday and Sunday. The Crunch host Hershey on Saturday night and then travel to Rochester on Sunday afternoon.
I'm predicting that Drouin will be traded by the end of next week.
Keep an eye on Montreal and St. Louis.
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Is St. Louis Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk on the trade market?
Craig Custance of ESPN seems to think so.
Shattenkirk is a $4.25 million cap hit and he becomes UFA next July. He will be demanding a hefty paty raise or else he will hit the UFA market.
Blues GM mDoug Armstrong has long term contracts already in place with Alex Pietrangelo (signed through 2019-20 at a cap hit of $6.5 million) and Jay Bouwmeester (through 2018-19 at $5.4 million).
Armstrong doesn't have room in hi sbudget moving forward to pay Shattenkirk north of $6 million per season on a long term deal.
Shattenkirk is a right shot D who can eat top four minutes. He thrives on the PP.
He has scored eight goals and 25 points in only 33 games this season with 15 points coming on the PP.
His career high is 45 points.
The Blues have sent their director of player personnel to Buffalo to scout the Savres several tiems this season.
Last Saturday, Blue GM Doug Armstrong was in Buffalo to scout the Sabres-Red Wings matinee.
Tim Murray needs a left-handed top four D.
Murray has $8+ million in available salary cap space to invest in upgrades.
Last summer, Shattenkirk's name was lined to Buffalo via trade rumors.
Would Murray balk at the opportunity to trade for Shattenkirk who is a righty, however, has played the left side in his NHL career in Colorado and St. Louis?
Don't sleep on Shattenkirk to Tampa as part of a deal for Jonathon Drouin.
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The Chicago Blackhawks have won five straight games and are looking as dominant and destructive despite their massive roster turnover in the summer of 2015, appear to be as strong today as they have in the past six seasons. Losing Patrick Sharp, Brandon Saad, Brad Richards, and Johnny Oduya doesn’t seem to have phased the Blackhawks one iota.
It’s truly remarkable the coaching job that Joel Quenneville and his assistant coaches have done to reinvent and retool the Hawks while not missing a drum beat.
Chicago (25-13-4) defeated Pittsburgh for the second consecutive night Wednesday, winning 3-1 behind a second straight two-goal game from rookie Artemi Panarin and 17 saves from backup Scott Darling. The Blackhawks have given up three goals in the past three victories after allowing eight in first two of their streak.
The Hawks are known for the blitzkrieg offense that features future Hall Of Famers Patrick Kane, Jonathon Toews and Marian Hossa. All Universe rookie Panarin has been all that and a bag of expensive composite hockey sticks for the Hawks this season. The sniping Russian enters tonight’s game against the Buffalo Sabres tied for 8th in NHL scoring with 38 points in 42 games played with 15 goals and 23 helpers. Panarin’s success can be somewhat attributed to his playing with the NHL’s leading scorer Patrick Kane. Panarin is dominating five on five play. He has just one power play goal this season. He has three game winning goals. He skates an average of 18:56 TOI. He is scoring so much because he has converted on 15% of his 101 shots on goal.
Don’t make the mistake of type casting the Blackhawks as a river hockey revival freak show. Their goalies have a combined 2.38 GAA. Corey Crawford will get the start tonight versus Chad Johnson. Hawks goalies have allowed only 100 goals against in 42 games played, 70 of which are 5 on 5 goals.
The Sabres might want to exploit Chicago’s penalty kill which has give up 18 PPGs and 3, 5 on 3 PP goals against. Sabres head coach Dan Bylsma worked his team’s power play unit heavily at Friday morning’s skate. The Sabres enter tonight’s game 8th in PP scoring with 26 PPGs (20.2% conversion rate). The Hawks PK is 12h in the NHL with an 81.2% kill rate. The Sabres have 11 PPGs on the road this season.
The Blackhawks try for their ninth consecutive victory and sixth in a row at home in the series as they continue a four-game stretch at home.
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Ottawa Senators rear guard Jared Cowen has become persona non grata in Ottawa. There appears to be no end in sight to his multi-game banishment to the press box.
Cowen told the Ottawa Citizen today that despite his benchings he has not asked the Senators to trade him.
“Even if there was, I don’t think I would be telling you guys, no offense,” Cowen said. “I don’t want the (Jonathan) Drouin situation.”
Drouin, the third overall pick in the 2013 NHL draft, wants to be traded from the Tampa Lightning organization. Last Sunday, the day after his client was demoted to AHL Syracuse, is agent went public with the trade request that he made to Bolts GM Steve Yzerman in November.
Cowen has been a healthy scratch for the past four games. Sens GM Bryan Murray called up Binghamton defenseman Fredrik Claesson to play in Cowen’s stead.
Playing a rookie over a six year NHL veteran home grown, first round prospect is not a good look for Cowen.
Cowen can be politically correct and say publicly that he is not bothered by his situation but down deep he must be wondering what in the HE-Double-Hockey-Sticks is going on.
Earlier this week, the Columbus Blue Jackets shipped disgruntled star center Ryan Johansen (4th overall 2010) to the Nashville Predators for star-to-be defenseman Seth Jones (4th overall 2013).
Cowen acknowledged that he is keeping track of all of the premature movement that is occurring in advance of the February 29 NHL trade deadline.
“Yeah, a lot of trades lately,” said Cowen, the 9th overall pick in the 2009 NHL draft.
“Holy Crap. When is the trade deadline?”
Cowen is an expensive healthy scratch at $3.7 million this season. He will earn $4.5 million next season. Cowen is a neat and tidy $3.1 million salary cap hit.
In November, Sens GM Bryan Murray challenged Cowen to play with more bite and gusto in his game.
There are several NHL teams, including the Buffalo Sabres, who would love to get their hockey mitts in the 6’6” 235 lb. top four defenseman. Cowen is a lefty. Sabres GM Tim Murray scouted and drafted Cowen when he was the assistant general manager in Ottawa.
Cowen is a competitor and he want to play hockey. He wants to play now.
“I want to play a long time and I have the ability to play a long time,” he said. “Coming here, I had a goal to play here my whole career, because you think of the guys that play in one spot for their whole careers and it’s the best guys on each team and they’re good people. So that’s what you want to be. You can’t control it and it’s a business and things happen, but I’m not expecting to try and leave here.”
Cowen will likely be a healthy scratch for Saturday noight’s battle with the Boston Bruins.
“Obviously I think about it. Everybody does, even the guys who have played the best season of their lives. I try to be what I’m supposed to be for the team, but obviously nobody is the exact way they want to be all the time.
“There’s a gap obviously, but it’s not like a misunderstanding, that they’re saying this and I’m saying something else and we’re on two different pages.”
To my eyes, it looks like Cowen’s days are numbered in Ottawa. Change is good in a top prospect’s career.
The Senators are said to be aggressively pursuing Jonathon Drouin to add scoing to their lineup. They are competing with 12-15 other NHL teams including Montreal, Anaheim and St. Louis to secure the speedy scorer. Perhaps the elder Murray is dangling Cowen as a part of his trade proposal to Steve Yzerman. My guess is that if Stevie Y is going to do the unthinkable which is trade Drouin to a division rival that it won’t be Ottawa. I have a source who tells me that the Montreal Canadiens are doing everything in their power to secure Drouin right now. Makes sense since Drouin is a Quecec kid who is used to playing under the bright lights and scrutiny that is pervasive in that province.
If I’m Tim Murray, I’m calling Uncle Bryan and saying:
“I gave you the 21st overall pick for Robin Lehner. Now, you owe me a favor. Give me Cowen for a second rounder and a top six forward”.
The younger Murray loves reclamation projects. he didn't bat an eye a making trades for Evander Kane, Ryan O'Reilly, and Robin Lehner. I suspect that he'd have no hesitation trading for Cowen having invested an insane amount of pre-draft scouting time into th ekid when he played in junior.
Murray and Dan Bylsma hired veteran coach Terry Murray to run the D in Buffalo and there has been dramatic improvement in terms of allowing fewer shots and playing better 200 foot defense as a D corps. I call Terry Murray teh "Defenseman Whisperer" because he is such a highly repscted and bright teacher of the position that he played in the NHL. Terry Murray knows defenseman better than any coach in the NHL right now. His work with Drew Doughty in LA is legendary. What he is doing right now for Rasmus Ristolainen is exceptional. High end talents aside, terry Murray is getting maximum outoput from vets Josh Gorges, Cody Franson, Mike Weber and Carlo Colaiocovo. He is also coaching up youngster Jake McCabe and Mark Pysyk. My take is that Cowen could use a few metaphorical hugs from a new coach in Buffalo rather than a few slugs from his coaches past and present in Otatwa.
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Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane remain the NHL's most popular duo.
The NHL has announced that Chicago’s two rock stars are ranked #s 1 and 2 in hockey sweater sales.
Toews and Kane have resurrected hockey in Chicago, leading the Blackhawks to their third Stanley Cup in six years last summer. They've both captured a Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP in their careers, and were each named to the NHL All-Star Game for the fifth time last week.
Kane, who leads the NHL in points with 60, is on pace to become the first American-born player to win the Art Ross Trophy for most points during the regular season and also could become the first U.S.-born player to win the Hart Trophy as league MVP.
Toews leads the league in overtime winners this season (four), which is also a franchise record, with half a season still to play.
Here is the full Top 10 list of highest-selling jerseys in 2015:
1. Jonathan Toews, Blackhawks
2. Patrick Kane, Blackhawks
3. Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers
4. Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals
5. Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
6. Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins
7. Zach Parise, Minnesota Wild
8. Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens
9. Ryan McDonagh, New York Rangers,
10. Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers
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