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Sabres vs. Maple Leafs - Dec. 20th, 7:30pm - SN, TSN 1050

CarltonTheBear

CarltonTheBear

Administrator
Staff member
BUF_light.svg
​
TOR_light.svg
Buffalo Sabres
11-17-4, 26 pts​
vs.​
Toronto Maple Leafs
20-10-2, 42 pts​
Projected Line-ups​
Zucker-Thompson-Tuch
Peterka-Cozens-Quinn
Krebs-Kulich-Benson
Malenstyn-Lafferty-Aube–Kubel

Dahlin-Byram
Samuelsson-Power
Gilbert-Clifton

Luukkonen​
Nylander-Matthews-Marner
Knies-Tavares-Pacioretty
McMann-Domi-Robertson
Lorentz-Kampf-Reaves

Rielly-OEL
McCabe-Tanev
Benoit-Timmins

Woll​
Scratches​
Ryan McLeod
Jacob Bryson
Henri Jokiharju​
​
Pontus Holmberg
Connor Dewar
Philippe Myers​
Injuries​
Ryan McLeod - Undisclosed - Questionable
Jordan Greenway - Undisclosed - Injured Reserve​
​
Anthony Stolarz - Lower Body - Injured Reserve
Jani Hakanpaa - Knee - Injured Reserve
Calle Jarnkrok - Lower Body - Injured Reserve​
Game Notes​
BUF
-Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (8-10-3, 3.00 GAA, .896 Sv%) will likely start for the Sabres
-Buffalo will look a little different from how they looked earlier in the week against the Leafs. For starters they'll have UPL in net instead of Devon Levi. Captain and #1 defenceman Rasmus Dahlin is also expected to return to the line-up after missing 7 games with back spasms
TOR
-Joseph Woll (9-4-0, 2.30 GAA, .918 Sv%) will likely start for the Leafs
-With another game in Toronto on Saturday against the Islanders it's possible the Leafs turn to their back-up for this match-up instead of Woll. Who that back-up would be is still unclear as there have been rumours Matt Murray could be getting a call-up to replace Hildeby while Stolarz is out
Streams​
 
With the changes in D pairings during the Dallas game, it would not surprise me to see a personnel change tried there.

Knies-Tavares-Pacioretty line apparently didn't generate much - no shots. That line might change.
Matthews-Marner were -2 in Dallas so that might change as well. That line did not play well - wasn't sharp.
 
I've checked a bunch of NHL transaction sites.
Here's two obvious ones:
Marlies AHL
theahl.com

TheAHL.com | The American Hockey League

theahl.com theahl.com
Puckpedia for the Leafs

None show Murray being called up or Hildeby being returned.

Few noted Hildeby was apparently called up on an emergency basis (some media reported that)
That is important because with the roster freeze for the holidays, Hildeby can be returned from an emergency callup. Murray would also have to be called up on that emergency basis - it is the only way now. It is a good way for the Leafs to do it because it doesn't burn any of Murray's 30 days/10 games regular waivers exemption he has from clearing waivers in October.

The Marlies are in Allentown, PA playing Lehigh Valley Phantoms tonight. The Leafs are playing in Buffalo tonight.
You would think if an emergency transaction was being made, it would have been made by now to get the goalies in the right city for tonight. That doesn't mean the transaction media sites would be updated yet.

We might not know until just before game time.
 
Just a quick note - the holiday roster freeze does not impact players being recalled from the AHL. Teams are still free to do that if they have roster space. They can only demote players who don't require waivers and were recalled after December 11 or have been recalled on an emergency basis - and only up until midnight on the 23rd - but they can bring up whoever they have space for.
 
cw said:
With the changes in D pairings during the Dallas game, it would not surprise me to see a personnel change tried there.

Knies-Tavares-Pacioretty line apparently didn't generate much - no shots. That line might change.
Matthews-Marner were -2 in Dallas so that might change as well. That line did not play well - wasn't sharp.
Click to expand...
Regular top 6 deployment splitting the RWs is better. Just compress to power lines as needed. Pacioretty is not fast enough to play his off wing, and Marner was basically playing third defenseman when grouped with 88-34.

I think they'll start with it again to give it some run, but I suspect it will flip back by the third if the game is close again.
 
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bustaheims said:
Just a quick note - the holiday roster freeze does not impact players being recalled from the AHL. Teams are still free to do that if they have roster space. They can only demote players who don't require waivers and were recalled after December 11 or have been recalled on an emergency basis - and only up until midnight on the 23rd - but they can bring up whoever they have space for.
Click to expand...
Good note.
In the Leafs current circumstance, however, their roster is at 23. Someone would have to go on the IR.
The Leafs currently have no players who don't require waivers and were recalled after December 11th except Hildeby allegedly recalled on an emergency basis.
 
cw said:
Good note.
In the Leafs current circumstance, however, their roster is at 23. Someone would have to go on the IR.
The Leafs currently have no players who don't require waivers and were recalled after December 11th except Hildeby allegedly recalled on an emergency basis.
Click to expand...
Yeah. The only way for the Leafs is via swapping goalies - though, I'm not sure it necessarily needs to be on an emergency recall. That was necessary for Hildeby's initial recall, because Stolarz hadn't been placed on the IR yet.
 
herman said:
Regular top 6 deployment splitting the RWs is better. Just compress to power lines as needed. Pacioretty is not fast enough to play his off wing, and Marner was basically playing third defenseman when grouped with 88-34.

I think they'll start with it again to give it some run, but I suspect it will flip back by the third if the game is close again.
Click to expand...
I also doubt it is very permanent.
Good note on Pacioretty. Hadn't thought of that.
Your Marner note kind of made me chuckle in a sad sort of way. No way Selke candidate Matthews should need that but there it was. That was not a good line.
I wondered, as did others, if Nylander-Matthews-Marner was something to try to help get Matthews going. He's still not back to where he was.
 
bustaheims said:
Yeah. The only way for the Leafs is via swapping goalies - though, I'm not sure it necessarily needs to be on an emergency recall. That was necessary for Hildeby's initial recall, because Stolarz hadn't been placed on the IR yet.
Click to expand...
As I mentioned, there is an advantage if they can recall Murray on an emergency basis - it doesn't burn his 30 days/10 game waiver coverage.
I think they were able to do that with Steeves - I think he still has his 30 days/10 game waiver coverage after playing 4 games as an emergency callup.
They can use the excuse that due to Murray's injury, they couldn't recall him when they called up Hiideby. It wasn't until he played post injury that they could be sure he was well enough.
With Woll's injury history, I'd be taking every inch I could get right now for waivers protection of Murray.
 
cw said:
As I mentioned, there is an advantage if they can recall Murray on an emergency basis - it doesn't burn his 30 days/10 game waiver coverage.
I think they were able to do that with Steeves - I think he still has his 30 days/10 game waiver coverage after playing 4 games as an emergency callup.
They can use the excuse that due to Murray's injury, they couldn't recall him when they called up Hiideby. It wasn't until he played post injury that they could be sure he was well enough.
With Woll's injury history, I'd be taking every inch I could get right now for waivers protection of Murray.
Click to expand...
As long as they never converted Hildeby's recall into a standard one (which, they would have had no reason to), that would be an option for them, yeah.

Just an FYI, though, there is a still a 30 day/10 game limit on the emergency recall re: waivers, it's just separate from the 30 day/10 game limit for non-emergency recalls. If the Leafs need him on the roster for longer than that, they'll need to end the emergency recall and use a standard recall on him. I doubt it will come to that, though, as they'll probably use a bunch of paper transactions/have Hildeby soak up some of the time to extend the window as long as possible.
 
The way we started against them last week and how we play in Buffalo they better come out better than they have last couple weeks. Totally dominated the last 2 periods against them last time out so jump on them early.
 
caver said:
is Murray an emergency recall too?
Click to expand...
Well curiously the tweet didn't specify that and LeafsPR would normally do that in the past (like with Steeves and Hildeby). Could just be an oversight on their part, but who knows right now. Hopefully an intrepid reporter will try to clarify that eventually.
 
bustaheims said:
As long as they never converted Hildeby's recall into a standard one (which, they would have had no reason to), that would be an option for them, yeah.

Just an FYI, though, there is a still a 30 day/10 game limit on the emergency recall re: waivers, it's just separate from the 30 day/10 game limit for non-emergency recalls. If the Leafs need him on the roster for longer than that, they'll need to end the emergency recall and use a standard recall on him. I doubt it will come to that, though, as they'll probably use a bunch of paper transactions/have Hildeby soak up some of the time to extend the window as long as possible.
Click to expand...
But in effect, using the emergency recall, they virtually double his NHL time before he has to clear waivers. And as you say, they can use Hildeby to fill in some gaps. But with only 50 games left in the season, he could play as many as 20 NHL games in 60 "NHL days" without requiring waivers. That works as long as Woll or Stolarz are doing the heavier workload for the other 30 or more NHL games.

If Woll goes down while Stolarz has a lengthy rehab ahead of him, then it gets tricky.

If Murray is playing as well as he appears to be, it is a nice problem to have.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
Well curiously the tweet didn't specify that and LeafsPR would normally do that in the past (like with Steeves and Hildeby). Could just be an oversight on their part, but who knows right now. Hopefully an intrepid reporter will try to clarify that eventually.
Click to expand...
I have found it very common that the emergency part is overlooked by a lot of folks reporting these transactions.
Often, it is print media who note it - not the transaction itself.
 
L K said:
Can you call it an emergency recall when the guy you are replacing is getting sent to the AHL?
Click to expand...
Hildeby, the guy getting sent to the AHL, was up on emergency recall.
If you cannot dress 2 goalies, that is an emergency as I understand it.
They relaxed the rule for goalies after Zamboni drivers were making too many appearances.
 
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