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SEveral high level NHL excutives are scheduled to be in atendance for tonight's Sabres-Flames game in Buffalo.
Are the eyes in the sky watching Buffalo's Evander Kane? Calgary's Dougie Hamilton?
The Tampa Lightning will ahve their senior advisor to their general manager here.
The Carolina Hurricanes will have their director of pro scouting here.
The Toronto Maple Leafs will have their assistant general manager and their director of pro scouting here.
The Washington Capitals will have their director of player personnel here.
The NY Islanders are sending their hockey operations consultant.
Other teams scouting this game will be:
Dallas, Detroit, Philly, San Jose, Nashville, Boston, Montreal, and Colorado.
More to come...
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Welcome to week number six of life without Jack Eichel.
After today's game day skate, Dan Bylsma shared with media some uplifting news regarding his star sophomore center man.
On Wednesday October 12, with approximately eight minutes remaining in the final practice session before the season opener versus Montreal. Eichel and Zemgus Girgensons came together causing Eichel to crumple to the ice while writhing in pain. High ankle sprains suck. They are so unpredictable to deal with. One day you feel good, the next three days you feel pain. There are many false positives in high ankle sprain rehabilitation. The best policy is to give it plenty of rest and follow doctors orders.
Bylsma said Monday that Eichel has skated in seven different occasions and is progressing in his rehabilitation process. Per the Sabres, Bylsma said Eichel “ramped up” his skating to a “third level.”
Bylsma said that Jack has seven levels to his skating.
“Jack has now skated a seventh time, I believe,” Bylsma said. “After the first couple times he’s ramped up to probably his third level of skating. For Jack, there’s about seven.
I like the sound of Jack being a three on a seven scale. Last week at this time it was reported that Eichel was having a difficult time stopping and restarting.
I assuming that pulling your skates on and gliding on ice is phase one. Phase Two must be the application of body weight on skate edges and propulsion of the legs. I assume Phase Three is actual power skating. Phase Four is cross-overs, pivoting, stopping and restarting. Phase Five is back skating and battle testing in small areas of the ice. Phase Six is high speed maneuvers with puck on stick and a defender or two leaning on you. Level seven is 200 by 85 feet skating with contact.
Bylsma said that barring any setbacks, Eichel will be joining his teammates in practice in "short order".
Cross your fingers, Sabres fan.
Eichel hosts McDavid on December 6.
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Ryan O'Reilly skated in lines rushes on Monday. However, he will not be playing against Calgary.
However, ROR said that his oblique injury is progressing and that "next game is very doable".
The Sabres host Detroit on Wednesday night.
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Dougie Hamilton netted his first career NHL goal against the Buffalo Sabres on February 15, 2013, as a member of the Boston Bruins.
I stole this from a hockey card I keep tucked under my fifty mission cap.
Did you know that Hamilton recorded assists on all three Calgary goals in Detroit last night?
True story.
Hamilton now only needs one assist for 100 apples in his 4+ year NHL career.
The Toronto native and former Niagara Ice Dogs star will likely have a bus full of friends and family in attendance for tonight's game in Buffalo.
I fully expect to see scouts from several NHL clubs, including Buffalo, keeping their eyes trained on Hamilton tonight. The 23 year old defenseman has been a regular in the NHL rumor mill for teh past two weeks. The Flames are not actively shopping the 6'6" and 210 lb. two hundred foot defender, however, Flames GM Brad Treliving will listen to and consider all trade proposals on the former first round draft choice of the Boston Bruins.
On June 26, Hamilton was traded from the Boston Bruins to the Calgary Flames in exchange for first round pick in the 2015 draft (Zachary Senyshyn), second round pick in the 2015 draft (Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson) and second round pick in the 2015 draft (Jeremy Lauzon)
Sabres GM Tim Murray has been patiently looking for a top four defenseman who can play in all situation and run a power play unit. Long term injuries to veteran D Zach Bogosian and Dmitry Kulikov have forced Dan Bylsma to play velocity and toughness challenged Cody Franson in the top four group while icing two Rochester Amerks D-men on his third pair in Justin Falk and Taylor Fedun. This bandage solution worked on Saturday night againbst a tired Penguins team, however, it is not a long term solution to Buffalo's D corps woes.
The Flames have several play makers in their current D group. They are looking to add a veteran power forward who can score and augment the talented young core of Sean Monahan, Sam Bennett, Johnny Gaudreau, and Matt Tkachuk.
Tonight's rare Monday night game is the second and final meeting between the Calgary Flames and Buffalo Sabres this season.
The Flames greased out a controversial 4-3 overtime win over the Sabres in Calgary on October 18.
Sean Monahan netted the OT GWG in Calgary's first win of the 2016-17 season.
However, the Sabres felt at the time, and replays confirmed that Samson Reinhart was drilled in the back with a nasty cross check by Monahan.
The reason Monahan gained possession of the puck is because he planted Reainhart face first into the end wall with a two handed cross check to the back. Monahan wheeled out from behind the net, worked the puck up top to Johnny Gaudreau who fed the assist for the controversial game winning goal. Reinhart and the Sabres argued, to no avail, that the goal should not have counted and that they deserved a power play.
In typical NHL fashion, the zebras didn't see it that way.
There's no doubt in my mind that Reinhart will be looking for redemption and vengeance on Monhan tonight.
Michael Frolik, Micheal Ferland and Matthew Tkachuk also scored for the Flames and Chad Johnson made 18 saves in the victory.
In their last 10 games against the Sabres, the Flames are 6-3-1 and have at least a point in their last four match-ups. The Flames haven't lost consecutive games to Buffalo since 2001. In their last 10 trips to Buffalo, the Flames hold a 1-6-3 record but have a point or more in three of their last four stops in upstate New York.
Monahan is on a six-game point streak against the Sabres, with five goals and nine points during that stretch of games.
Tonight's game is the second stop on Calgary's longest roadie this year. The Flames defeated Detroit on Sunday night. They will face Robin Lehner and the beat up Buffalo Sabres tonight. The Sabres gutted out a dramatic 2-1 shootout win against teh Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night. Anders Milsson made 49 saves to preserve the win for the Sabres. Frankly, I'm disappointed that Nilsson isn't getting the start against Calgary. In his last three starts, Nilsson has made 123 saves on 126 shots faced. He has a superb .976 save percentage and .97 GAA in those three games. Dan Bylsma refuses to throw the kid a bone. I shake my head at this.
The Flames will travel to Columbus, Boston, Philadelphia, and New York in a six-games-in-nine-nights stretch.
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