The Buffalo Sabres got some great news on Tuesday as goaltender Linus Ullmark was back on the ice for practice at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.
Ullmark has been out of service for the Sabres since Feb. 27 after leaving the Feb. 25 matchup with the New Jersey Devils at KeyBank Center with a lower-body injury.
At that point of the season, Ullmark had been playing pretty well for Buffalo with a 5-4-2 record in 12 games played with a 2.44 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage. Leading up to the injury, former head coach Ralph Krueger had turned to Ullmark for five straight starts, going 2-2-0 with a 2.11 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage.
The 27-year-old netminder was happy to be back on the ice with his teammates after nearly a full month away due to his injury.
I felt alright. It was the first real session back, so it was exciting. It was fun to be around the boys once again," Ullmark said following Tuesday's practice.
"It's frustrating, obviously, to be on the sidelines and watching the boys struggle, but I've just got to control what I can control."
As for the play that Ullmark suffered the injury, it was an incredible series where the goalie was moving all around the crease making save-after-save on Devils shooters. After he made the final glove save to draw a whistle, he took some time to get up from his feet.
"It was on the chaotic play where there was a lot of shots coming from back-and-forth, and for some reason, I made the save at the end and afterwards I just felt the discomfort, at first. Then it kind of just grew into something more and more intense," Ullmark explained. "So I can't really tell you what exactly happened and when, but I think it was around that time."
Sabres interim head coach Don Granato said Tuesday that Ullmark participated in the full 20 minutes of drills at practice, but said it will take him a few days before the team makes any official decision on his return to the net.
Ullmark attributes his return to the ice on Tuesday to the plan that was set for him shortly after his injury.
"feel like we've taken the necessary steps to always improve," Ullmark said. "Obviously sometimes it takes longer to get back on [the ice], but for now, there's no set timetable for me. It's more of a day-to-day basis. We have to check off a couple of those check marks along the way. Sometimes you can check off a couple of them, and then the next day you might go back and erase that, and then come back strong the following day."
The Sabres are staring at three more games on this road trip, with two games coming back-to-back on Wednesday and Thursday against the Pittsburgh Penguins, while the team will head to Boston to face the Bruins on Saturday.
With the upcoming slate of games for the Sabres, Granato was asked if there is a realistic chance that he could be on this road trip, perhaps as soon as the two-game set with the Penguins.
"That would be great, if he could," Granato said. "We will, with goalie coach Mike Bales and the training staff, push him as hard as they feel is good and is a healthy push, and then we'll get that information upon return. You can't rule anything out, I would say, but the next couple of days we'll be looking at the potential of that. Certainly we want him back as soon as we can, and I think Linus wants to be back as soon as he can, but the information is not there yet to know the date on that."
Without Ullmark in net, the Sabres have went on to lose 14-consecutive games, starting with the contest he was forced to leave early in on Feb. 25. Buffalo has gone 0-12-2 in the winless streak, which has led to Krueger getting fired and the 2020-21 season spiraling out of control.
Ullmark has been part of the organization dating back to the 2015-16 season when he made the jump to North America from Sweden. Since then, he's made appearances in 109 games for the Sabres, going 46-45-12 with a career goals-against average of 2.77, a career save percentage of .912 and three shutouts.
The one consistent that has been with the team in Ullmark's years in North America is losing. While he's been able to experience some winning years with the Rochester Americans in the American Hockey League, the past three seasons as a full-time member of the Sabres have been a struggle, whether it was expected or not.
"For some reason, these last couple of years hasn't really been going the way we wanted to," Ullmark said. "Obviously, we've gotten off to a very good start, and then we haven't been able to maintain it. I thought we were in kind of good shape before my injury. I thought we played a solid game. Then it's just a matter of self confidence. When you start racking up those losses and you're playing teams that have figured out; I thought we played really well against the [New York] Islanders, but the Islanders had perfect games, and it's hard to beat the Islanders when they're on their perfect game.
"It's a very competitive league, and it's a very competitive division. As soon as we can get back on the winning side of it, I think it it's going to be even better. We've just got to find a way. There's no real answer to how it feels and what the issue is or anything. If we had the answer, obviously we would've stopped losses a long while ago. So [we must] just get up the next morning and play a game that we love and try to enjoy it as much as possible. In the end, we'll get the wins."
The Sabres will hope to get back on track, with Ullmark in net or not, on Wednesday in Game 1 of their two-game set with the Penguins.
Following Tuesday's practice in Pittsburgh, Granato gave the latest updates on a few players that are dealing with injuries.
- Carter Hutton has returned to Buffalo for further evaluation of his lower-body injury suffered early in Monday night's 5-3 loss to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
- Kyle Okposo is dealing with an upper-body injury that forced him to miss the team's four-game road trip. Granato says there is no timetable yet for his recovery, but he is unlikely available for the rest of the road trip.
- Colin Miller and Tobias Rieder are both day-to-day after missing Tuesday's practice due to minor injuries. Granato believes Miller could play Wednesday, but Rieder is still a question mark at this point.
With the uncertainties of Ullmark's status for Wednesday, the Sabres have called up goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen from the Rochester Americans and loaned him to the team's taxi squad. The team is likely preparing for Dustin Tokarski to get the start for Buffalo, while Michael Houser will serve as his backup.
The Sabres will hold a morning skate on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. ET, where we should get a better update on the lineup for the evening's game.