Duck, Duck, Goose (sabres)

Updated:

The assistant general manager of the Anaheim Ducks is in Buffalo again tonight.

This marks the third straight game that the AGM of the wounded Ducks has been scouting on at First Niagara Center.

Chad Johnson's melt down in the Buffalo net on Friday night and Linus Ullmark's first career NHL start tonight adds new intrigue to the unsettled Buffalo goaltending situation.

The Ducks have scratched Freddie Andersen the past two games. Their back up tender Anton Khudobin lost both of those starts.

With John Gibson parked for now in AHL San Diego and Andersen bolted to the bench behind Khudobin, its safe to say that there are problems percolating in SoCal.

Andersen is a pending RFA earning $1,150,000 this season. Gibson is signed for the next 4 seasons ($721K, plus, 3 seasons at $2.3 million).

I'm sensing that the Ducks have come to the conclusion that they cannot get a contract finalized with Andersen. At times like these, the club tends to look for other options. Trade s happen at times like these.

It's very curious that Marcus Foligno and Mike Weber are both healthy scratches tonight. Both players skated this morning. Both players played last night in the loss to Montreal

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The Columbus Blue Jackets are an unmitigated mess right now.

Winless in eight straight games this season, they find themselves 16 points behind the first place Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference standings. The NHL season is just three weeks old, however, the Blue Jax are on the verge of free falling their way out of the playoff race.

Earlier this week, Jax GM Jarmo Kekalainen turfed former head coach Todd Richards and replaced him with the voluminously opinionated, never dull John Tortorella.

It appears that Richards' "player's coach" style served to spare the rod that spoiled his "children". Hiring Tortarella is a clear sign that Kekalainen and Jax President John Davidson feel like their woefully under performing team needed a swift kick in the ass to get it back on the winning ways.

It took Tortarella no time at all to bench his star player Ryan Johansen in the third period of Thursday night's loss.

Tortarella denied benching Johnasen by saying:

"I don't think conditioning is a problem. Getting (the players) back to feeling good about themselves is the biggest problem."

Earlier today, Johansen didn’t take the morning skate in Denver because of an "illness".

The facts:

After the game day skate in Denver, Torts told the team's website that Johansen's sickness was known when the team ahead the skate. Torts said that there was no point keeping an ill player in Denver and then making him wait until the team landed back in Columbus until 3:30-4:00 am. Torts said it was better for Johansen to get him back home to be evaluated.

Johansen returned to Columbus with one of the team’s trainers.

There was no further update on the Johansen illness.

John Davidson described the Johansen matter as “another curveball….

The 23 year old power forward is in year two of his three-year, $12 million contract.

He has scored 1 goal sand added 5 assists in his 8 games played. He is already -6.

Johansen scored a career high 71 points in 82 games played last season. He scored a career high 33 goals in 2013-14. It was after that season that he and his agent engaged the Blue Jackets in a nasty public contract dispute. In the end, Jo Jo got paid $12 million. I've often wondered about the burned bridges that were created between the player and the team.

One wonders if Johansen's days are done in Columbus. He was the 4th overall pick in the 2010 NHL Draft. He has a ton of trade value.

It would not be surprising to me in the least that the Blue Jackets are looking to trade Johansen for badly needed defensive help. The Blue jacks have an embarrassing -22 in goal differential right no having allowed 37 goals while only scoring 15 goals in their first 8 games.

The Blue Jax blue line is a collection of has beens and never will be featuring Fedor Tyutin (-5), David Savard (-10), Dalton Prout (-9), Cody Goloubef (-1), Kevin Connauton (-4). Jack Johnson's (-9) foot speed has been an issue. Youngster Ryan Murray (-3) is being asked to play a role that seems to be overwhelming him.

Tortarella is a defensive task master and he must be hyper ventilating into a brown paper bag at the thought of having to go to war every night with AHL-level D corps and below average goaltending.

Having coached D stars Ryan McDonagh, Mark Staal, Dan Girardi, Anton Stralman, Dan Boyle, Kevin Bieksa, and others in his NHL coaching career, Tortarella must be clamoring to find a #1 D who can block 5 shots, deliver 10 hits per game while eating 27-30 minutes per game.

Torts has won a Cup with Nikolai Khabibulin. He has made deep playoff runs with Henrik Lundqvist and Roberto Luongo.

Jax starting goalie Sergei Bobrovsky's $7.4 million multi-year cap hit makes his contract untradeable.

A ninth consecutive loss in Devner could force Kekalainen to make an immediate trade to add defensive depth to an otherwise failing D corps.

Will Kekalainen trade away Johansen?

I think he can and will because the Jax have great forward depth to replace Johansen with Sonny Milano, Kerby Reichel, William Karlsson, Oliver Bjorkstrand, and Alexander Wennberg.

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The prevailing thought in the somber Buffalo room on Friday night was to purge the Montreal Massacre from the short term memory banks and flip the page to the New Jersey Devils.

With Friday night's curb stomping at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens in the rear view mirror, a handful of Buffalo Sabres returned to the scene of the crime on Saturday morning for an optional twirl.

Ryan O'Reilly told me Friday night that he has to be better on faceoffs against the Devils. ROR pointed the finger of blame in his own face for failing to win key faceoffs on Montreal's third and fourth goals. I told him that he was just being hard on himself and that there was enough blame to be handed about the locker room for the implosion. Take look at the game summary, I said. The D were sloppy and soft on loose pucks in the slot in front of Chad Johnson. The forwards were not as aggressive in their own end of the rink at 4-2 Montreal as they were at 2-2 after ROR had tied the game on a bullet power play goal.

The 2015 Montreal Canadiens have already scored 30 goals in 8 games. They have allowed only 9 goals against. Their +21 goal differential is far and away the number one reason why they are at the top of the NHL standings right now. Hell, Guy Lafleur, Bob Gainey, Larry Robinson and the 1975-76 Canadiens would have had their hands full trying to stop the 2015 Canadiens. O'Reilly tipped his bucket to the Habs when he told me that they play such a structured, patient, aggressive style. In the nest breath he took accountability for his failures against the Canadiens.

"I--- have to be better. I didn't lead my team. I will be better against the Devils", O'Reilly told me emphatically.

I believe him.

I rode the elevator from the press box to the service level with a few NHL suits including Anaheim's AGM and New Jersey GM Ray Shero. The consensus feeling among the NHL suits on the elevator was that the Montreal Canadiens have proven quickly that they are the team to beat in the East right now. Their team speed and four-line attack is hard to defend for 60 consecutive minutes. "They keep coming at you in waves," one suits was overheard saying to another.

The Devils are 3-3-1 this season. They are 2-1 on the road. Unlike the Habs, they are beatable.

The Devils are in a similar situation as the Sabres having scored only 16 goals while allowing 20 goals against (-4). The Sabres have scored only 13 goals and have allowed 22 goals against in their eight games. Their -9 goal differential is a big concern right now.

So, Linus Ullmark will start his first NHL game tonight versus New Jersey, who were in Buffalo last night watching the Habs puck the Sabres.

The 22 year old Lugnvik, Sweden native is being tasked with stopping the bleeding caused by carnage perpetrated by the Canadiens.

It's a 50/50 coin flip, isn't it?

If the kid gets blitzed like Ryan Miller did in his first NHL start, then the narrative will go something like:

"What were you expecting? He's just a kid who has only played 176 minutes in the only 3 games of his pro career".

However, if Ullmark shouts at the Devils and steals a "W" from them, the narrative will be: " Sit Johnson and play Ullmark in Philly on Tuesday night".

Dan Bylsma on Ullmark, per the Sabres:

“We called him up so that he could get an opportunity to play, whether that was tonight, last night or later on next week,… Bylsma said.

“He was going to get a chance to play. Tonight is it.…

The Sabres are asking a lot of the youngster who is fully recovered from the two hip surgeries that he underwent in April. Surgeons in his native Sweden performed procedures on each of his hips. Ullmark was originally projected to be available to the Rochester Americans in December. However, the kid has exceeded all expectations in his physical therapy and recovery. He is a month and a half ahead of his original timetable.

Tim Murray and Sabres management are crossing fingers hoping the kid can emerge from the game unscathed. The absence of burly body guard Zach Bogosian has exposed a softer, kinder and gentler side to the Buffalo blue line. Bogosian's abdominal injury is a real concern because he has now missed the past three weeks of action. His return to the lineup is still a mystery. Murray has been patient in his assessment of his entire team. He usually looks at a ten game sample size. However, inconsistent goaltending and a less than physical D are two trends that have emerged in the first eight games of this season. Murray is in constant contact with his fellow NHL GMs and I anticipate that he will be making a trade soon to bolster his back end. He needs a top four D who can skate, create, make the first pass, and deliver punishing checks to opponents. He needs Bogosian and a Bogosian clone. He is also looking for a another goalie. Two names to keep in mind are Anaheim Ducks Hampus Lindholm and Frederick Andersen. The assistant GM of the Ducks has been scouting the Sabres in person at the Toronto and Montreal games. The Ducks are prearing to make a blockbuster trade and or head coaching change to shake up their listless group. The Ducks play in Minnesota this afternoon and another loss could spell the end for Bruce Boudreau. Paul MacLean and Randy Carlyle are considered to be candidates to take over for Boudreau should he take the fall for his team's poor start to the season. The Ducks are 1-4-1 right now they have scored just 6 goals while allowing 6. Andersen, a pending RFA, was a healthy scratch the past tow games which resulted in losses by back up Anton Khudobin.

The Ducks, like the Sabres, need a shot of adrenaline to kickstart their heart, to coin a Nikki Sixx lyric.

Ullmark has stood on his proverbial head in his three starts with the Rochester Amerks. He has a 1-2 record with a 2.72 GAA and a .932 save %.

He stopped 38 shots in his pro debut and made 43 stops on Wednesday.

The Sabres D and forwards will do everything they can to limit the amount of chances and shots that actually land on Ullmark.

Bylsma needs a hero to emerge right now. Ullmark is the man standing in the white hot spotlight.

“I’m excited to see (Linus) him play,… Bylsma said Saturday morning.

“He looks good and solid. I know in all three of the games that he played, the report was that he was the best player on the ice.…

“Those three games were big for him in his development.…

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