DarthEbriate

But he's months from potentially being bought out (and unlikely) and he's not being waived. If the agent complains about the conditioning assignment, again -- full NHL salary -- then you tell the agent that their client played 1 period of hockey since last season and you're in 3rd place in the division. If they want to request a trade, so be it. But the agent knows his client has no trade value.

Mrtka has a primary and secondary assist in his season debut. Seattle leads Prince George 2-0... ha. Whoops. 2-1. In the first.

C'mon. Just a little bit of rampage....?

How? He's under contract for 3 more years. And players get their full NHL salary when they're given the conditioning assignment designation. You're doing what's best for the player and the team if you give him an extra week to get up to game speed.

Yup. But no sane GM is trading for a just-below-average goalie on that salary and term. You can bury him each October in Rochester. Lowers the cap hit, doesn't lower the payout from the owner. And... I'm not going to forget it... they're also paying Georgiev because they were unwilling to play hardball and get a PTO from someone. But --- more importantly --- Luukkonen could be part of a tandem with Lyon (potentially, at least -- if you get good -- staying in his net and not leaning forward Luukkonen). He just shouldn't be in the lineup this early. He shouldn't have been called up until he had made at least two, and preferably 3, rehab starts.

Adams has to convince his boss to buy him out and keep paying him for a few more years any. And take the extra cap hit in addition to Skinner.

Right. So then it's Lyon and Ellis as the backup. Luukkonen is still conditioning. Easy. Yup. His fantastic run got him all the way up to ... .910%. Which is above league average, but... 15th-ish in the league. Nothing elite. And that means that his other 30 games were... his normal output. And I love his name!

Husso got Future Considerations last year. The thing about Luukkonen is that he's got 3 years left at 4.75M. If you're a GM, are you taking that risk? You'll lose your job if you bet on him. Maybe a team planning to tank next season that needs to get to the cap would do it. But... no one is doing that right now. The tanking teams already have those guys. Boston already has a Korpisalo. Pittsburgh already has a Jarry. The teams that just tanked (CHI, SJ) don't want him on their books for 3 seasons when they're going to be on the rise.

That's a 4-1 empty-net goal win with Ellis. But --- the former sentence is the more important to the future and health of the franchise.

Love the Canucks black skate jerseys.

This could have easily been a 4-point weekend and putting Toronto in a world of hurt. 3 points is good, but the decision to bring up an unready goalie left a point on the table.

Like I said... he should be in Cleveland right now. That's on Adams.

Power... tsk, tsk, tsk. And any uncontested shot on Luukkonen in OT was going in.

Precisely. You have him and Levi split the games for two weeks --- it's not like the Sabres were struggling in goal and needed a spark. They needed Luukkonen to get his games in.

Dunne, Malenstyn, and Krebs with two shifts in the final 2:30. Getting the big guns rested for OT.

To be fair to him -- he shouldn't be in this game. He should be playing in Cleveland on a conditioning stint right now. (Amerks up 1-0 in the 1st.)

Bummer. Toronto got the matchup of Matthews vs. the 4th line -- and Malenstyn and Dunne almost had Krebs bury one for them. That would've been lovely.

UPL...

Ellis makes that save. Geertsen maybe makes that save.

Luukkonen --- that's why you need more in a conditioning stint. Timing. Vision. Game speed. etc. That was garbage.

The Sabres defensemen have had at least 3-4 toepicks and stumbles today. Dang it.

He's earned plenty of Selke votes and he provides the shorthanded goal threat. He's become a good defensive center over the years.

No. He's just worse at hockey than Dunne. Which Ruff is starting to realize. Thankfully, Greenway will be back soon and move both of them completely out of the lineup. It's weird that this team misses a tweener like Kozak (who, yes, can maybe carve out a 4C career -- but this year he's a tweener) as much as it does. I hope his injury isn't more than a few weeks.

OEL has been jawing the refs all day, too. No misconduct for him.

If it had been Knies taking out Lyon, I'd want the Benson interference called, too. The good thing is the Sabres tied it up already anyway. Tuch's return from the misconduct is helpful.