Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – With Jeff Skinner and Zemgus Girgensons joining Vinnie Hinostroza in the NHL's COVID-19 Protocol, the Buffalo Sabres decided to cancel their Tuesday practice. That means the next time the team will get together will be Dec. 26 after the holiday break.
General Manager Kevyn Adams said that Girgensons is experiencing symptoms while Hinostroza and Skinner are not. Adams said one player in Rochester has tested positive.
With this new variant of COVID, nobody knows how this season is going to break down. Will the cases increase? Can the NHL even get a full season in? Adams said, “The protocols are in place, we’re doing our best to follow everything.” Adams added, “We’ve talked with our player about being vigilant with the rules and really doing everything we can to keep ourselves and each other safe.”
With cases popping up everywhere Adams said, “Of course, you do have concern about the guys and the staff and we’re hoping that if there are positives, they're asymptomatic, you feel OK and you test out, but that’s not always the case.”
On Tuesday it was revealed that the NHL and the NHLPA have agreed not to send NHL players to the Olympics next month in Beijing. That means the league will try to reschedule as many games as possible during what was going to be a three week break. As far as the Olympic thing goes, Adams feels for the players that won’t be able to represent their country, “It’s such a special thing to put your jersey on for your country.” Adams did wear the Team USA sweater in 1993-94 for the World Junior Tournament and in 2005 for the World Championship.
The All-Star weekend was also slated for that time in Las Vegas and there’s no word on if that will still go off as planned.
The Sabres have their development plan which had Dylan Cozens in Buffalo and the rest of the prospects in Rochester. Due to an injury to Craig Anderson and Dustin Tokarski getting COVID-19, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was called up. He played five games and gave up just two goals in each game. I think it’s safe to say that he is currently the team’s No. 1 goalie, but Adams said the big goalie is a perfect example of their development model, “You have to be prepared to pivot depending on your situation and UPL is a perfect example. We don’t want to box players out and make sure that we’re prepared to set players up for success, so it can’t be, they have to play this many games, it’s fluid.”
Adams admitted that with the way COVID is right now, they may have to at times this year carry three goalies as part of their 23-man roster.
Starting on Oct. 31, the Sabres won just three of 20 games. Buffalo brought in Luukkonen, got considerably better play in goal and now have points in their last four games and probably should’ve had a point in the fifth game which was a 2-1 loss to the New York Rangers.
Adams didn’t like what he saw for a while, but he’s noticed a big improvement, “I try to evaluate in a really honest way and there’s a stretch where I didn’t feel we were putting ourselves into positions to get results. There were pockets, but not enough 60 minute efforts.
“Starting with the Rangers game we started seeing our team play the way we need to play, possessing the puck, attacking, playing aggressive offensively and defensively. Certainly UPL came in and was really solid and you could see the process of our game was right and we started to see results.”
Adams said he’s not concerned that any of the injured, Casey Mittelstadt, Robert Hagg or Anderson are done for the year. He said, “Casey was a little bit of a different injury. It was in a similar place, but the injury itself was a little bit different. Hagg is doing a lot better than he was a few days ago. Anderson is doing much better, he’s started to turn a corner and there is hope that he’s on a better path right now.
One of the reasons Anderson was signed is because of the type of veteran leader he is. It’s something that Adams thinks they need, “What an unbelievable veteran he’s been and we dearly missed him when he went out of the lineup not just because of his play, but there were times where he was like having a coach on the bench. He was talking to the defensemen, pointing things out and that’s really powerful when it comes from your own teammate.”
Tage Thompson missed practice on Sunday and Adams said there was a worry that he wouldn’t have been able to play Monday had the game been played. Adams said, “His MRI was good news, this break is going to be good for him because he had other little things that had been nagging him.” That may explain why he hasn’t scored a goal since Nov. 26 covering 10 games. The Sabres next scheduled game is Dec. 27 against the New York Islanders.
