(WGR 550) – I’m honestly trying to figure out why I’m writing an article talking about Tuesday's game against the San Jose Sharks.
San Jose has seven players in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols, as well as their head coach Bob Boughner. Assistant coach John MacLean will coach against the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday.
The situation is so bad, the Sharks' American Hockey League affiliate San Jose Barracudas had their game on Sunday postponed. It amazes me that the NHL would allow this game to be played.
Out for the Sharks because of COVID-19 protocols are Timo Meier, Erik Karlsson, Matt Nieto, Kevin Labanc, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Radim Simek. Jonathan Dahlen was taken off the list Tuesday morning.
Meier, who’s their leading scorer with five goals and six assists for 11 points in eight games, went into the protocols Tuesday morning. Meier is eighth in league scoring.
The Sabres elected not to stay in Los Angeles and practice there on Monday. Instead, they flew to San Jose and practiced in the building where this outbreak is taking place.
Buffalo's leading scorer Victor Olofsson left practice on Monday with a soft-tissue injury. He didn’t take part in the morning skate on Tuesday and is very questionable for the game. Olofsson has three goals and five points in his last three games.
Cody Eakin has a good chance to return to the lineup after missing five games due to injury.
Rasmus Asplund has three goals in his last two games, and has six points in his last six games.
Craig Anderson gets back in net for Buffalo. He’s won four of his five starts this season with a 1.98 goals-against average and a .939 save percentage.
San Jose is also without former Sabres forward Evander Kane, who’s serving a 21-game suspension for submitting a fake COVID-19 vaccination card.
Kane has had all sorts of problems since last season ended. He and his estranged wife dropped domestic violence restraining orders against each other on Oct. 13. Anna Kane filed for divorce in July.
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Buffalo split the first two games of the road trip, blowing a three-goal lead in Anaheim only to win in overtime, and blowing a two-goal lead in Los Angeles, losing 3-2.
At 5-2-1, the Sabres are still in second place in the Atlantic Division, six points behind the 8-0-1 Florida Panthers. Buffalo is plus-eight in goal differential, which is second in the division to the Panthers.
The Sabres did give up a power play goal in Los Angeles, but I thought they did an overall good job killing five other penalties. The Sabres are at 87% efficiency on the penalty kill, which is sixth in the NHL. The power play is No. 5 in the league, clicking at 27.3% efficiency.
Buffalo has fallen to fifth in NHL goals-against, but is at a very respectable 2.13.
San Jose is third in the Pacific Division with a 5-3-0 record. The Sharks trail the Calgary Flames by three points and the Edmonton Oilers by four.
The Sharks eked out a 2-1 overtime win over the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday. Before that, they had lost three in a row.
The goaltending chores have been fairly even in San Jose between two newcomers. Adin Hill is 3-2-0 with a 2.95 goals-against average and a .893 save percentage. James Reimer is 2-1-0 with a 1.13 goals-against average and a .964 save percentage. In his three starts, Reimer has only given up four goals. He played 32 minutes in relief of Hill in Boston against the Bruins and didn’t get scored on.
Hill was traded to San Jose from the Arizona Coyotes back in July. He was a third round pick of the Coyotes in the 2015 NHL Draft. The 25-year-old played 49 games in Arizona before being traded.
Logan Couture missed one game due to NHL's COVID-19 protocols. He has nine points in seven games.
Join Brian Koziol and myself for pregame coverage starting at 9:30 p.m. ET. A reminder that the game will be streamed only via ESPN+, which means the only place to catch Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray on the call is on WGR.
