Terrible news for the Buffalo Sabres. Or is it?
Evander Kane was injured midway through the third period as the Sabres were looking for a sign of life while trailing in the game 4-2.
Thanks, Stephanie @myregularface
Kane tweeted after the game that he would be back "ASAP".
Sabres fans hope that you aren't pulling their legs, Evander.
Kane thundered into the Zamboni door corner looking to recover a chip in, however, he was taken hard to the boards by Devils D-man David Schlemko. Kane's left leg, his trailing leg, was smashed awkwardly into the wall. Kane fell to the ice writhing in pin. He lay there for a couple of minutes. He skated gingerly to the Buffalo room under his own power while being assisted by Buffalo trainer Tim Macre. Kane's injury is weight bearing, which is a good sign. Its too soon to say whether it was a knee or an ankle. However, it looked like Schlemko pinned Kane's knee against the wall.
Kane missed the majority of games last season when he played for the Winnipeg Jets with a serious shoulder injury. He was traded to Buffalo on February 11. He underwent successful shoulder surgery weeks after the trade to Buffalo. He was cleared for contact in July.
Kane has been a tower of power for the improving Sabres and has one goal and two assists in eight games this season.
More on the Kane injury later.
Linus Ullmark lost his NHL debut 4-3 to the New Jersey Devils on First Niagara Center ice.
Ullmark made 24 saves in his NHL debut. The Devils didn't do him any favors as they screened him and took his eyes away early and often. Not bad for a kid who had double hip surgery six months ago.
The Devils scouting report read:
"Get in Ullmark's face early and often; make him move laterally; make him uncomfortable".
The Sabres selected Ullmark with the 163rd pick in the 2012 NHL Draft.
He spent just 20 days with the Sabres after training camp broke. He started three game sin AHL Rochester and made 110 saves. He posted a .932 save percentage on an Amerks team that has a young, porous defense
Corey Schneider made 26 saves for the winners.
My takeaways:
I really liked what I saw of Ullmark early on against New Jersey. He is not an NHL goalie yet. He hasn't invested his 10,000 hours in the AHL yet. Say what you will about Ryan Miller. The best thing that ever happened to him in his career was that he was forced to play in AHL Rochester for the 2005 season when the NHL players were locked out by the owners. Miller touched and ton of pucks and learned how to become a professional by grinding away with his teammates. Its my opinion that Ullmark should eat a steady diet of rubber and "garbage plates" in Rochester before his next NHL start.
Ullmark is not ready to be an NHL goalie. He needs more time in the incubator. He's only played 176 minutes of hockey ion North America. His orientation has always been to play on the European 200 by 100 sheet, not the 200 by 85 of the NHL. There are huge difference between playing for MODO of the Swedish Elite League and playing for the NHL Buffalo Sabres.
Ullmark should not be fast-tracked to the NHL like Mikhail Grigorenko was. He should play 30-40 games in Rochester before he plays in the NHL again.
The Devils didn't do him any favors by taking his eyes away while crowding his crease. Ullmark stood tall and literally battled to track the puck and to make visual connection with the shooters. He moved post to post very well.
At 2-2, I was hoping that Ullmark could slam the door and give his team a chance to win the game. That didn't happen when he surrendered a five on five goals to David Schlemko. The back breaker was the shorty that he surrendered after Tyler Ennis belched up a shorthanded breakaway to Adam Henrique who wasted no time at all depositing the SHG behind Ullmark.
I said it before the game and I will say it again:
Ullmark needs more time in the American Hockey League. He is not ready for the pace and the precision of the NHL game. He played only 176 minutes of North American hockey in his three games that he participated in at AHL Rochester. Ullmark learned a valuable lesson on Saturday night, which is, NHLers play for keeps. AHLers play for the hope of making an NHL roster. There is a huge difference between the NHL and AHL. Ullmark learned a valuable lesson playing against 25-35 year olds on Saturday night. In the NHL, playing against men who have kids in private schools, huge lifestyles and fat mortgage paymets on their homes ups the ante considerably.
Plain and simple: Ullmark is not ready for the NHL. He needs to make 500-600 more saves in the AHL before he can be considered ready to play in the NHL for one game.
The only reason Ullmar played Saturday night is because Dan Bylsma was desperate. Chad Johnson's self esteem was demolished by the undefeated (9-0) Montreal Canadiens in Friday night's 5-2 loss. Johnson is a career backup goalie. He is not a seven day a week starting goalie. He can give you 3 to 4 starts in a row when needed, however, he has never played 30-40 games in a compressed 10-12 week window in his NHL career. Robin Lehner's high ankle sprain precipitated a Johnson starting role. We learned Friday night that Johnson is vulnerable to allowing soft goals. I blame Johnson's struggles on thinking too much and on mental fatigue. Johnson was playing in unchartered waters when he played in seven straight games. Friday night, Johnson reminded Tim Murray that the Buffalo net is like a computer that has no spyware loaded onto it. Vulnerable is a good word to describe the Buffalo net situation right now. Its subject to malware and spam. Downloading a free version of Ullmark anti-virus looked good on paper, however, it didn't fix the net problems that are plaguing Buffalo right now.
Murray better make a move. Quickly.
The 1-5-1 Anaheim Ducks were shootout by Minnesota on Saturday afternoon.
The Ducks have the solution that Tim Murray is craving for.
Bob Murray has goalie depth. Tim Murray is in desperate need of an NHL goalie.
The two teams are talking.
The assistant general manager of the Anaheim Ducks was 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. The Ducks sent their pro player personnel director to Buffalo for the Sabres-Maple Leafs game on Wednesday night. I first reported this news to you on Wednesday night. Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported the Anaheim-Buffalo courtship in his "After 40 Minutes" segment on Hockey Night In Canada on Saturday night.
Chad Johnson's melt down in the Buffalo net on Friday night and Linus Ullmark's first career NHL start tonight adds new intrigue and gasoline to the fire regarding the unsettled Buffalo goaltending situation.
The Ducks had scratched Freddie Andersen the past two games. Their back up tender Anton Khudobin lost both of those starts. Andersen made several ten-bell saves in the 3-0 loss to Minnesota.
There has been zero in the way of primary and secondary scoring.
Getzlaf, Perry, Kesler, Silfverberg, Hagelin, Cogliano, Maroon, Fowler, Vatanen and the go-to goal scorers in Anaheim have scored a total of 6 goals in 7 games for the Ducks this season.
The Ducks have now been shutout four times this season.
I expect Bruce Boudreau to be summoned to the gallows pole in the near future. His team is not good right now. He will lose his job because its easier to fire Boudreau than it is to fire 5-7 multi-millionaire under achievers.
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.
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.
Ducks management seemingly feels strongly that it will not be able to get a long term, mutually beneficial contract done before the end of the season with the 26 year old Andersen. The young Dane will be RFA in July. He earns $1,150,000 this season and will be looking for a heavy duty, multi-year, multi-million dollar pay day in his next contract. The Ducks already have Gibson, 22, signed for the next four years at $721,000 for this season and $2.3 million for the three remaining years.
Will Gibson be the next main man in the Anaheim net? Or, will it be Andersen?
Two great goalies. One net. One goalie has to go. It's like the Jonas Hiller drama all over again, right?
It's looking more and more like the Ducks have decided which young goalie it will be committing to for their long term. It's not likely that they will sign Andersen so that they can platoon him with Gibson for the next four plus years.
Maybe Tim Murray is looking at the Eastern standings right now thinking that his team can take an immediate quantum leap forward by bolstering his goaltending. This is not a tanking season. There is no reason to rule out the Sabres for one of the eight playoff seeds in the East. The rebuild is over. The days of struggling and tanking are dead and buried.
The Sabres are 2-6. They could easily be 4-4 if their goalies had made saves rather than allowing soft goals the past three games.
Its now time to win games and strive to make the playoffs. Or die trying to.
Murray will tell you that his #1 priority each and every day is to make the Buffalo Sabres a better, more competitive hockey team.
It's was very curious that Marcus Foligno and Mike Weber are both scratches tonight. Both players skated this morning. Both players played last night in the loss to Montreal. The Sabres announced during the first period that Foligno was dealing with a lower body ailment. Weber was victimized by the Canadiens in the 5-2 loss on Friday night.
The Sabres are 2-6 right now. They have allowed 26 goals against while scoring only 16 goals for.
Do the math.
The Sabres are having troubles scoring goals right now. Until such time that they start scoring 4 or 5 goals per game, they are going to be vulnerable to bad goaltending.
Injuries to Evander Kane, Robin Lehner and Zach Bogosian are crippling the Sabres right now.
Kane has been Buffalo's best player to date. If he is lost long term, the Sabres will be in a world of hurt.
Tim Murray has to make a trade to deliver normalcy and continuity to the Buffalo goal crease.
I expect the Anaheim rumors to heat up considerable in the days to come.
Johnson is a good kid, however, he is not a starting NHL goalie. Ditto Ullmark.
Freddie Andersen makes save like this monster stop on a regular basis.
Tim Murray has $9.5 million in available salary cap space.
He has to invest immediately in a solution to stop the bleeding in his goal crease.
Anaheim can help.
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