Tim Murray's quest to land a top four D continues.
Calgary and Anaheim have been rumored to be the team's that Murray is courting at this time.
Kris Russell and Cam Fowler are connected to Buffalo via chatter right now the Flames and Ducks are struggling mightily and both teams have GMS who are looking to make deals to spark their failing clubs.
Who else might Tim Murray make a deal with if the Flames and Ducks go elsewhere?
Don't sleep on Tampa.
Steve Yzerman has Matt Carle and he is available for the right trade compensation.
Carle, 31, was the last player off the ice for today's optional skate, and is confirmed out for tonight's game.
Carle earns $5.5 million this season and is -3 through 11 games.
He is averaging 18 minutes TOI per game.
Carle told the Tampa Times today that he is not happy to have coach scratch fever.
"You want to play every game," Carle said. "So whether you're hurt or not, you want to play every game".
Carle wouldn't take the bait when asked ton comment on the nature of the scratch.
"I'll let Coop make comments about that," Carle said. "Better coming from him than me. I'll let him speak to that."
Nikita Nesterov will take Carle's place in the lineup. Andrew Susrr and Nesterov are younger, cheaper and on part with Carle in terms of skill.
The Bolts have just $1.2 million in salary cap space today and trading Carle would free up $5 million immediately. I would think that Tim Murray would ask Yzerman to eat 50% of Carle's $5.5 million cap hit if they were to partner on a trade.
Carle has three years remaining at $5.5 million.
Carle is a mobile, steady, reliable puck mover who skates well and covers a lot of ice, especially in his own end. He can give you 30-40 points per season when used properly even strength and on the power play.
Yzerman will need Carle's $5.5 million to give to Steven Stamkos when he re-signs with Tampa for $10 million per season over multiple years.
**
Marcus Foligno was one tired hombre on Friday night.
The Buffalo-born, blue collar man had just punched out at the time clock after he gave another honest night's work for an honest day's pay.
While the media horde was piled around Moose's locker room neighbors Nic Deslauriers and Linus Ullmark, I sought out Foligno because Friday night was his kind of game.
Foligno knows that when Philly comes to town, your teammates need you to play heavy, fast and furious.
That's exactly what #82 did on Friday night, and has been doing all season long.
Marcus plays the role of human wrecking ball that flushes out pucks and wins battles on the walls.
"I hit three guys into Rob Ray (between the benches) tonight. It was good", Marcus told me after the Friday night win over Philly.
The dichotomy of Foligno is that he is a 6'3 227 pound slab of granite that will hurt you physically, yet he has soft hands and impressive speed. Foligno has made some gorgeous plays this season, like the assist on Jack Eichel's first NHL goal. He has become a very dependable, reliable and versatile player who like Deslauriers, can give you effective minutes on lines 1 through 4 when asked to help out. You see, Foligno is not just a below average fourth line ham-n-egger. He has morphed into a complete, dominant power forward capable of controlling play on both side of the puck. He kills penalties, plays net front on the power play, and is an all around complete player. Dan Bylsma is using Foligno like a Swiss Army knife right now by deploying him in specific situations to inject energy and to give his team an adrenaline jolt when needed.
After Friday night's win, Dan Bylsma paid Foligno a high compliment by saying that the 3-1 win over Philly on home ice was his best game of the season thus far.
He was his trademark physical self, too.
Foligno remarked:
"You hit a guy into the boards and it makes a loud noise and it means you have to fight".
Foligno finished a heavy check on Flyers D Nick Shultz at the Philly blue line, and was immediately challenged to a fight by Luke Schenn. Whatever, said Marcus. The two combatants traded bombs. During the fight, I watched the players on the Buffalo bench jump to their feet to cheer on Foligno. It was great to see that sense of togetherness and comradery back on the Buffalo bench. Frankly, we haven't had that spirit here since 2009.
Marcus told me that he can put his finger on why he and his teammates are playing such inspired hockey through the first 11 games of this season.
"I think that it's a gig thing with this team this year is that you've got that bounce back swagger where we come in and we're hungry the next day. I think last year and the year before, it was "oh, now we've got to play back to backs. Let's just try to get through it and try to work our way through it". Now it's like: " We are coming! We are hungry every time. It doesn't matter if it's an afternoon game the next day-- you've got to come to the rink and bring it because a lot of guys in here have won and we're all clicking right now. I think it shows patience. It's a huge win for us because it shows that we can play back to back and that's something we can do to thrive off of this year knowing that we can have positive energy coming off a tough loss in Pittsburgh where we shot 53 at the cage and only3 go in. We came back here and get the goals that we need and also had a shut down defense tonight, too".
At 4-7, the Buffalo Sabres are a far better team than their record would indicate.
From my vantage point, it looked as if the Philadelphia Flyers took the re-grouping Sabres lightly in their two spirited contests this week.
In both games, the Sabres out worked the Flyers to earn three of four points.
Playing the team that finished 30th overall in the NHL standings the past two seasons twice in the same week may have given the Flyers a false feeling of confidence.
Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol didn't like his team's start in Buffalo. He said that Buffalo swung the momentum in their favor after Claude Giroux and Ryan O'Reilly exited the box as a result of off-setting minor penalties. Four on four hockey saw Buffalo control th epuck and the majority of the play.The penalties occurred at 17:12 of the the first period. Jack Eichel scored the fist goal of the game just 12 second after the Giroux and O'Reilly minors were killed off.
“We haven't been able to get any kind of rhythm in any one of these past three games. It's one thing to the next. We had a pretty good first period until we got to the 4 on 4 and that seemed to swing the momentum. They scored a goal right after that”., Hakstol said after the 3-1 Buffalo win on Friday night.
On Tuesday night, the Flyers players should have taken note of the improved Buffalo forward ranks and D corps when the Sabtes won 4-3 in overtime.
Former Sabres goaltender Michal Neuvirth spent parts of the past two seasons in Buffalo and he certainly could have given his new teammates a firsthand scouting report on the improved Sabres offense.
Neuvirth hadn't' played a game since he suffered a head injury in Boston on October 21.
In his 29 games in Buffalo, Neuvirth went 6-19-3 with a very impressive .921 save percentage and 2.96 goals-against average.
Neuvirth recorded a 2-0-0 record with a .947 save percentage and 1.55 goals-against average. He also recorded back-to-back shutouts against the Florida Panthers and Chicago Blackhawks in his first two starts as a Flyer.
On Friday night in Buffalo, the Flyers started slowly, having lost the night before to the New Jersey Devils.
The team held an optional skate on Friday morning. Neuvirth was tasked with stopping the two game losing streak and launching the five game road trip with a win in Buffalo.
Neuvirth did his part. His teammates didn't play to the high standards that he set in the game's early moments. Dave Haksol wanted to play Buffalo five on five or five on four. Having to kill six Buffalo power plays didn't factor in to Philly's pregame chalk talk.
The Flyers started slowly and made far too many trips to the sin bin for Neuvirth's liking.
“We've got to stay out of the penalty box. We spent way too much time killing penalties. Obviously, the first goal with 30 second left (in period) we've got to make sure that we just got to shut it down”.
Jack Eichel, the 2015 Hobey Baker Award winner and second overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft, amped up the Buffalo crowd and gave his team some mojo with just 36 seconds remaining in the first period. Eichel took a Ryan O'Reilly pass at the blue line and walk Flyers rookie D Evgeny Medvedev en route to ripping a snap shot low blocker side on Neuvirth. I was Eichel's fourth goal of the season. All four Eichel goals have come on home ice.
Captain Claude Giroux echoed Neuvirth's sentiments.
“Too many penalties tonight. Third period we picked it up a little bit but it was too late”
***
Name me one thing that Ryan O'Reilly struggles at while on the ice right now.
You can't because he is playing at an exceptionally high level right now and seemingly there is no end in sight to his dominance in all three zones.
In 11 games this season, ROR has 4 goals and 9 assists for 13 points. He has one game winning goal, three power play goals. He has taken 28 shots on goal and is the owner of a 14.8% shot percentage. He is averaging 21;32 TOI per game and is 59% on his draws right now.
You think that Patrick Roy and Joe Sakic are missing O'Reilly in Denver right about now?
On Friday night, O'Reilly scored his fourth goal of the season on the power play.
O'Reilly also earned some heavy praise from his head coach Dan Bylsma who piled 26:03 TOI onto ROR's broad shoulders. In the end, O'Reilly scored a goal, chipped in two helpers, and won 55% of his draws.
"I maybe rode him a little hard tonight with the way I played him 26-plus minutes, but he was the best player on the ice in pretty much every situation tonight," Bylsma said. "He didn't necessarily start the way he wanted to. Before tonight's game, he was at a point a game. Don't know if I'm surprised, it's kind of as advertised, but I'm more surprised at the other areas and facets of his game. We leaned on him for 35 faceoffs, against [Claude] Giroux. We needed him on the penalty kill late."
With 43 seconds remaining in Buffalo's 3-01 win over Philly on Friday night, Sabres D-man Josh Gorges was given a five minute boarding major for charging Flyers forward Matt Read.
Nasty, unnecessary hit by Gorges to be certain.
According to John Vogl of the Buffalo News, Gorges will not be subject to further disciplinary actions.
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