Updated:
It was learned Tuesday that the Kings will be without Toffoli for a while.
Los Angeles Kings forward Tyler Toffoli was lost to a lower-body injury last week.
The injury forced Toffoli to miss games in Nashville and Dallas last week.
The last time he suited up and played was in Columbus on December 20.
The Kings will play games in Vancouver and Edmonton on Thursday and Friday.
Kings head coach Daryl Sutter said Tuesday morning that Toffoli it will be a while until Toffoli gets looked at.
“We’ll get him looked at again early after the new year, so it’ll be at least a week before we even look at him again….
Toffoli’s consecutive games played streak ended at 149 games when he missed the game in Nashville.
Toffoli's loss will be sorely missed as he has scored 8 goals (2 PPG) and 12 assists. He has been averaging 17:40 TOI.
Los Angeles has officially been credited with losing 115 man-games to injury this season:
Andy Andreoff (15), Dustin Brown (2), Marian Gaborik (21), Anze Kopitar (5), Brayden McNabb (25), Jonathan Quick (32), Jeff Zatkoff (11) and Toffoli (2).
The NHL roster freeze has been lifted and teams are now free to make trades to bolster their rosters heading into the NHL trade deadline.
The Kings currently have $8,347,757 with long term injury relief.
Kings scouts have been frequent flyers to Buffalo in recent weeks. I'm told Kings brass has been curiously keeping an eye on two Buffalo forwards: Evander Kane and Zemgus Girgensons. Kane is trending upward and has three goals in his past five games, and, eight points in his last 10 games. The ideal to trade a player is when he is performing at a high level. You sell a stock at it's highest value, right? Kane's value is rising on a game by game basis. Tim Murray isn't going to give Kane away. Murray wants a young left shot defender. The loss of Toffoli for an extended period of time will put a dent in LA top six forward ranks. Kane would add the three things that the Kings so desperately need more of from their forwards:
Scoring, speed and physicality.
Kane will get his nose dirty along the walls and will go to the hard areas around the next. It took Kane a half dozen games to get his bearings back after missing 11 games due cracked ribs that he suffered in a collision with the end wall boards on opening night against Montreal.
At what price Kane?
Tim Murray is still desperately seeking a left shot D who can play top four minutes and contribute on the PP. Jake Muzzin, 26, fits that bill to a tee. The 6'3" 220 lb. Woodstock, Ontario native has played a key leadership role in LA's success for the past six seasons.
Sabres D coach Terry Murray helped shape Muzzin into the defender he has become. Muzzin has three and a half seasons remaining on his current contract at $4M AAV.
Murray also has interest in Ontario Reign D-man Kurtis MacDermid, the 6'5" 210 lb. hitting machine. MacDermid starred on Erie Otters teams that featured Connor McDavid in 2014 and 2015. MacDermid is an undrafted lefty who plays a heavy, tough, stay at home game.
The Kings can ill afford a prolonged scoring outage from its top six forward group, 4-3-3 in their past 10 games, currently are tied with Calgary for eighth place in the West with 38 points.
Kings GM Dean Lombardi may want to make a trade to add scoring and speed to his lineup now rather than wait until the trade deadline. Waiting that long could force the Kings fall out of wild card contention.
Toffoli earns $3.25 million this season and will be RFA on July 1.
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Merry Christmas, Sabres fans.
Your team is in last place in the Eastern Conference standings and looking up at a daunting climb to make the playoffs.
The road ahead just got tougher. Ryan O'Reilly will be out of the lineup indefinitely.
Sabres forward Ryan O’Reilly underwent a successful appendectomy over the break & no timetable has been set for his return. pic.twitter.com/YSfCUKdpl2
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) December 27, 2016
The Factor , 25, has scored 7 goals and 11 assists in 27 games this season.
I have a friend who is a general surgeon. I'm told patients can usually return to normal activities in two to three weeks. If surgery is done with a laparoscope (a thin telescope-like instrument for viewing inside the abdomen), the incision is smaller and recovery is faster.
Here are the new forward trios from this morning's game day skate in Daytwa:
Foligno-Eichel-Moulson Girgensons- Reinhart-Okposo Kane-Larsson-Gionta Deslauriers-Grant-Carrier
Coach Bylsma: Lehner starts tonight.
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) December 27, 2016
For O'Reilly, roughly 10-14 days of rest & recovery. pic.twitter.com/Os0eDbH5Aw
It's hero time, Samson. It's time for you to play a bigger role in the Buffalo offense.
Tim Murray and Dan Bylsma need to get their house in order while Pegulas are focused on cleaning up remnants of Rex's mess
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) December 27, 2016
It's Hero Time, Samson. Step It Up!https://t.co/OffGi51CjS pic.twitter.com/xMfRVJZucc
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) December 27, 2016
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The Buffalo Sabres finished their most recent 10-game segment with a 3-4-3 record. They lost four straight games heading into the NHL holiday break. They sit in last place in the Eastern Conference with a 12-13-8 (32 points) record. The Sabres cannot score goals to save their lives. They scored just 70 goals in their first 33 games, that's a 2.12 GPG average, which puts them in 29th place in the NHL goal scoring standings just behind 30th place Colorado. Buffalo's -21 goal differential is the second worst foal differential in the NHL, just one goal better than New Jersey.
Today, I'm sharing my naughty and nice list for the 2016-17 Buffalo Sabres.
With 49 games remaining in the regular season schedule, this is where I pat guys on the back or kick them in the ass. I treat this is the NHL mid-term review.
Naughty List:
Sabres Shootout Participants:
You have to grade it as an F.
Samson Reinhart is 2 for 4, or 50% on shootout attempts this season.
Cal O'Reilly was 1 for 2 with a game winner, but he was an injury call up who is now in Rochester.
Jack Eichel and Brian Gionta are ohfer one.
Ryan O'Reilly is ohfer two.
Kyle Okposo is ohfer five.
Samson Reinhart:
I feel like Reinhart should be scoring more more than he has to this point in the season. He has seven goal and 12 assists for 19 points in 33 games played.
However, Reinhart is fluffing up his point totals via power play time. Seven of his 19 points have come on the power play, which tells me that Reinhart isn't battling to to scummy areas on the ice to get his event strength chances.
Reinhart is not a rookie anymore. He is a veteran player who needs to start getting dirty and scoring 5v5. When Eichel and Kane were out with long term injuries, Reinhart's gun went silent. He needs to give more. He has been withholding.
Sammy, you are a second overall pick in the NHL Draft. Stop trying to blend in and be content to be one of the guys in the room.
Start acting like you are THE big man on campus. You have the skill and intelligence to be a helluva lot better than you have been to date this season.
Lead from the front, Samson.
Zemgus Girgensons:
The Latvian Locomotive has become a Toyota Prius. What happened to the hard skating, in your face agitator who hacked, whacked, battled and brawled for loose change in the slot?All Zemgus need do is look at Marcus Foligno and Johan Larson for inspiration. Foligno and Larsson are succeeding in Bylsma's system because they have accepted their roles and are playing them to a tee. Zemgus? Stop waiting for Ted Nolan to skate back through the door. It ain't happening, kid.
Girgensons has just 3 goals and 3 assists in 33 games played.
What's most disappointing is that Zemgus is now easy to play against. He has dished out only 46 hits this season and has only 10 blocked shots. Girgensons had 125 hits last season.
What is that?!
I'll tell you what it is. It's symptomatic of a player who is wasting far too much time inside shifts thinking about where he is supposed to be on the ice. He's thinking far too much about making mistakes. He's not playing inspired, intuitive hockey.
Why? Is he still pissed off at Murray for only giving him a 10% pay bump on a one year deal? You'll recall Zemgus went unsigned as an RFA until mid-September. His one year show-me contract is looking like Murray called his bluff.
Girgensons has played 100+ games for Bylsma. I don't see him finishing the season with the Sabres.
Evander Kane:
After missing 11 games with cracked ribs, Kane has found his scoring groove with 6 goals and 5 assists in 22 games.
39 hits? 9 blocked shots?
There are times when Kane disappears inside games.
For $5.25 million per copy Kane has to be one of the best players on the ice. He is not even second best most nights.
Like Girgensons, Kane has a whole helluva lot more to give to his team. He's a 30-goal scorer. Where are his big goals when his team needs them most while they are mired in 29th place overall with just 70 goals for this season?
I predict that Kane will be traded in the very near future.
Kane's departure will give Tim Murray the opportunity to call up Nick Baptiste (14 goals) and Justin Bailey (12 goals) from AHL Rochester). Who knows, maybe Alex Nylander will get a look in Buffalo after Team Sweden is eliminated from the IIHF World Juniors tourney now underway in Toronto and Montreal.
Dmitry Kulikov:
Sorry, I'm not Ku Ku for Cocoa Puffs.
18 hits? 23 blocked shots? 19 shots on goal?
Minus 10 in 19 games played averaging 22:18 TOI?
Kulikov is still injured. He plays like an 80 year old man with a sore back. When healthy, he can be a dynamic defender. Not right now though. He needs rest and recovery for his ailing lower back injury suffered in the preseason game against Toronto. I predicted in this space that Kulikov would be dogged all season long by the injury. Didn't I? It's a tough injury that L5-S1 issue.
Injury aside, Kulikov is not a smart defender. He freelances way too much for my liking. He vacates the back post far too often and is often caught running around behind his net and chasing pucks up the walls. He plays like a rookie. His game is full of fundamentals errors.
Thank gawd he's UFA in July.
I will gladly give Brendan Guhle Kulikov's TOI next season.
Hey, Dan. Get back to your sense and get Kulikov away from Ristolainen. Put McCabe with Risto and Kulikov with either Gorges or Bogosian.
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Nice List:
Rasmus Ristolainen
#Norristolainen has been a godsend for the Sabres. He's my mid-term team MVP. Take Risto away from the Buffalo lineup and you have sheer chaos and failure. Seriously. He is a 200 by 85 foot defender who is the fourth man in the rush.
In 33 games played, Ristolainen has already skated 877:32 of combined ice time (1,011 total shifts) which is 26:35 TOI. Ristolainen now ranked fifth overall among NHL D in terms of time on ice. For the past two seasons, Ristolainen has found himself mentioned in the same breath as the elite D-men in the NHL: Drew Doughty, Ryan Suter, Erik Karlsson, Shea Weber, Dustin Byfuglien, and Brent Burns.
Ristolainen dies it all at an elite level. He'll shut down the opponents' top line, kill penalties and run your power play. He'll give you all he has during 3 on 3 OT and should also be used in the shootout.
Ristoalinen finds himself presently tied for first place in power play points with 13.
Ristolainen has 15 points (3G, 12A) in his last 15 games, including 14 points (3G, 11A) his last 11.
Ristolainen is tied for 16th among all NHL skaters with 20 assists.
The 22 year old Finn has recorded an assist on 30.3% of his teammates’ goals. It is the third-highest such percentage in the league, trailing only Connor McDavid (40.0%) and Erik Karlsson (32.0%).
This would rank as the second-highest percentage in franchise history, behind only Pat LaFontaine (33.7%) in 1992-93.
Only one Sabres defenseman has ever recorded an assist on more than 20 percent of his teammates’ goals: Phil Housley (22.6%) in 1989-90
Kyle Okposo:
When you pay an unrestricted free agent $42 million over seven seasons, he better contribute immediate offensive numbers. Okposo has done just that for the Sabres.
Okposo entered the holiday break with 9 goals and 13 assists for 22 points in 32 games. He has 12 power play points.
Okposo is currently second on the Sabres with 81 shots on goal. He averages 19:18 TOI, which is second to only Ryan O'Reilly's 21:31 TOI among top ice time among the forwards.
Marcus Foligno:
Marcus Foligno bet on himself last summer when Sabres GM Tim Murray offered him a one-year "show me" contract. Foligno was a restricted free agent during the summer of 2016 and he knew if he was going to earn a long term contract, he would have to show Murray and Dan Bylsma that he belongs in the leadership group. Foligno bet on himself and is winning right now.
He has played most of the season with Johan Larsson and Brian Gionta. That trio is the most versatile, most reliable forward line on the Buffalo roster. They kill penalties, play hard minutes as the energy line, and they are finding the back if the net.
Foligno has remained healthy and has 4 goals and 6 assists in 33 games played.
Foligno leads the team with 104 hits and fights with 3. His teammtes plays bigger and with more courage with the Moose has their backs.
Bylsma has raved about Foligno's rare blend of physicality, speed and tough around the net. His head coach recently promoted Foligno to the net front forward position on the first power play unit.
Jake McCabe:
For years, I've been comparing Jake McCabe to arguable the best defenseman to ever lace up his skates for the Sabres in Mike Ramsey. McCabe made a believer out of me when I first saw his compete level and dogged determination at his very first rookie development camp in 2013 when he was drafted 44th overall out of the University of Wisconsin.
McCabe is big, strong, fast, skilled and sees the ice so well. He makes a great first pass and can bury his head and beat the forwards back to his end of the rink when he joins the rush.
Dan Bylsma finally figured out that McCabe is at his best when paired with the Big Finnisher Rasmus Ristolainen. McCabe compliments Ristolainen so well and they inspire one another to play better. I wish Bylsma would leave the 29-55 D pair alone. Two games ago, Bylsma moved the struggling Dmitry Kulikov next to Ristolainen and the result was a dud. McCabe-Ristolainen is the winning combination, Dan.
McCabe is averaging 21:13 TOI . He has 40 hits, 43 blocks and 34 shots on goal. McCabe has seven assists and will no doubt be scoring goals with more shots on the enemy cage in the final 49 games of the season.
Sabres PP:
When the Sabres were decimated with injuries to key forwards and D, it was their power play units who saved their season. Now that the team is healthy, the Buffalo PP continues to light the lamp with regularity.
The Sabres have scored 23 PPG in 103 PP attempts. Their 22.3% PP success rate makes them 4th in the NHL today.
Props to Matt Moulson and his 7PPG, 3 PPA.
Rasmus Ristolainen has 1PPG, 12 PPA.
Kyle Okposo has 4PPG, 8 PPA.
Ryan O'Reilly has 3PPG, 7 PPA
Samson Reinhart has 3PPG, 4PPA
Jack Eichel has 2PPG, 2PPA.
I think the Sabres shave been slacking off lately with their man advantage units. They've gotten into the bad habit of over-passing the puck and not shooting on goal. They are looking for the cute plays. They need all the help they can get scoring goals however they can. They need to get back to getting clean zone entries, getting set up, getting low post man in goalie's eyes and firing at will on goal. Hack, slash, bang, punch, scratch for all rebounds.
Sabres Goaltending:
Robin Lehner and Anders Nilsson have a combined 2.61 GAA, which is ranked 11th overall in the NHL. On most nights, Lehner and Nilsson give their mates a chance to win games. In regulation time, that is, The duo is ohfer five in shootouts this season. Their combined save percentage in shootouts in .286%. So there's that.
Lehner and Nilsson are big, strong goaltenders who deserve a round of appreciation for keeping the Sabres competitive despite their anemic offensive production.
Sabres Training and Medical Staffs:
To date, the Sabres have lost 164 man games to injury.
The training staff and medical team never get enough credit for diagnosing, treating and rehabbing the injured players and getting them back to the starting lineup sooner than later.
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If you are wondering why I omitted Ryan O'Reilly and Jack Eichel. Stop wondering.
I want to see more offensive production from both players.