*Risto, Change-O* (Sabres Ristolainen Bogosian)

Sabres Ristolainen Bogosian

*Risto, Change-O*

By GARTH'S CORNER

Nov 22, 2017 • 2:36 pm

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Win or lose tonight, the Buffalo Sabres have a lot to be thankful for.

The Sabres have been a limping, beat up, snake bitten team for the first seven games of the season. The Sabres are among NHL leaders in man games lost to injury. When the puck drops tonight, the Sabres will have already lost 114 man games to serious injuries to key players.

Buffalo D-men account for 70+ man games lost to injury this season.

Phil Housley’s beleaguered blue line is about to receive the gift of good health. It will not be long until the Buffalo D corps will be fortified and strengthened by the return from injury of two veteran difference makers.

Rasmus Ristolainen, sidelined since November 2, and Zach Bogosian, out since late September, took pat In Wednesday’s optional twirls ahead of the Sabres-Wild game tonight.

Ristolainen has been recovering from an upper-body injury he suffered in the loss at Arizona earlier this month.

Bogosian has missed all 21 games this season with a lower-body injury he suffered in the last exhibition game of the preseason schedule.

"I told everyone I'm ready," said Ristolainen, who added it's up to the coaches and medical staff when he returns. "I'm in good shape right now. I felt good. I felt fresh, and the legs were going.…

You don't know how great a player Ristolainen is until he is out of the lineup for three weeks. He still leads the team in hits with 38, despite having not played since November 2. Not a good stat for the other nine Sabres defenders who have dressed and played in gamees this season. Ristolainen is Buffalo's minute-muncher who was logging an NHL high 27:09 TOI at the time of his injury.

Getting Ristolainen back and healthy will allow Sabres D coach Chris Hajt the opportunity to balance out his D duos. The injuries to Ristolainen, Bogosian, Beaulieu, Gorges, Falk, Fedun. and Tennyson have caused Hajt to throw names into the blender to determine his D pairs. On many a night, Hajt has had to make due with playing 2 or 3 AHL-caliber defensemen in his starting six.

Thanks for drafting skilled forwards with premium draft choices at the top of teh NHL Draft Tim Murray! Mikhail Sergachev, Jakub Chychrun or Olli Juolevi would look great on the Buffalo blue line right about now, eh, Tim?

The 30th place Sabres have a -26 goal differential right now. They have allowed 72 goals against in 21 games played.

The Sabres have been a one-dimensional group with Ristolainen in street clothes.

Last season, Ristolainen scored 6 goals and added 39 assists. He landed 186 shots on enemy goalies. This season, Ristolainen has just 5 assists and 32 shots on goal.

The Sabres have not gotten any offensive production from the D this season. Houlsey and Hajt are losing sleep waiting for the offensive surge to happen. Combined, the Sabres have but one goal and 20 assists from it's defensemen this season.

The D Buffalo D corps have taken 195 shots and have failed on each and every one of them.

Countless dozens of shots from the Buffalo blue liners end up being blocked by opponents who know from watching the scouting video to stand in and defend the shot lanes against the Sabres defensemen.

Compounding the Buffalo Sabres struggles is their lack of goal scoring. The Sabres average just 2.29 goals scored for per game this season. Not good when you are surrendering 3.48 (28th in NHL) goals per game.

Don't get me started on Buffalo's fall from grace on the power play. last season, Ristolainen QB'd the 31 PP unit in the NHL. He scored 1 PPG and had 25 PPA. This season, the Buffalo PP is ranked 30th overall in the NHL.

The Sabres do not have another player of Ristolainen’s pedigree in their organization. He is the rare blend of physicality, finesse, offense, vision and hockey IQ.

Needless to say, life without the feisty Finn has been miserable.

“It's been long weeks lately, and I'm excited to get back…, Ristolainen said after his skate.

“It's been long weeks lately, and I'm excited to get back….

You got that right, Risto.

The Sabres 5-12-4 record can be attributed to the glut of serious injuries to their go-to, top six defenders.

Not once in 21 games have Ristolainen, Bogosian, Marco Scandella, Nathan Beaulieu, Jake McCabe and Viktor Antipin dressed and played in the same game.

Bogosian’s injury was equally as debilitating to the Sabres as Ristolainen’s was.

The timing of Bogosian’s injury sucks because of the commitment he showed to his off-season training. Knowing that Phil Houlsey’s Five-man attack system gives the D the green light to join the rush, Bogosian spent his summer in Minnesota skating in the high profile Da Beauty League, where he skated freely and effortlessly. Free at last from Dan Bylsma’s smothering D-zone system, Bogosian’s high intensity summer training routine served him well at Sabres training camp where He was often seen joining the rush and busting his keester on the back check.

"I just felt a tweak," Bogosian told the Buffalo News in Wednesday. "I get through training camp and preseason feeling really good, liking where my game is going, and then the last period of the last preseason game it happens.

"It seems to be something you want to get frustrated about, but I don't think getting frustrated with an injury is going to help anyone."

***

Here is the new Buffalo Sabres Winter Classic 2018.

She’s a beauty!

The Sabres should petition the NHL to make this tarp their full time, permanent sweater!

***

Linus Ullmark is a beauty!

The Rochester Amerks goalie ( Buffalo Sabres in the 2012) loves his goalie mask art.

"The Minion Man" loves showing off his custom paint jobs wherever and whenever he can.

Remember last summer when Ullmark and his new bride broke the Twitter? The newlyweds posed for pictures in their adorable customized goalie masks.

Mr. And Mrs. Ullmark 😄 She's definitely a keeper! 🌟

A post shared by Linus Ullmark (@lullmark) on

This season, Ullmark is 8-3 with a 2.65 GAA and a .924 save percentage through in 12 games played.

Ullmark believes strongly in paying himself first for the successes that he achieves in hiss quest to become the next starter for the Buffalo Sabres.

Ullmark expresses himself through the art of his good friend and collaborator David Gunnarsson.

Gunnarsson is a professional artist and is the custom mask designer for the best goalies in the NHL, including Ullmark, Henrik Lundqvist, Ben Bishop, Pekka Rinne, John Gibson, Corey Schneider, Antii Raanta, Frederik Andersen, Michal Neuvirth, Anders Nilsson, Jhonas Enroth, Eddie Lack, Scott Darling, Oscar Dansk, Malcolm Subban and others.

For more than 2 decades, Gunnarsson has been crafting and creating custom artwork on the buckets of your favorite goalies.

Check out Gunnarsson's exquisite bucket brush strokes from his Cradle Of Creativity on Instagram @DaveArt

Ullmark's hockey playing "Minion" artwork is outstanding!

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