{"id":107247,"date":"2021-04-15T12:08:59","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T16:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=107247"},"modified":"2021-04-15T12:08:59","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T16:08:59","slug":"buffalo-sabres-linus-ullmark-will-not-play-vs-washington-capitals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2021\/04\/15\/buffalo-sabres-linus-ullmark-will-not-play-vs-washington-capitals\/","title":{"rendered":"Buffalo Sabres Linus Ullmark Will Not Play vs Washington Capitals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Buffalo Sabres goaltender <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/u\/ullmali01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Linus Ullmark<\/a> will miss at least tonight&#8217;s game vs the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/capitals\/\" target=\"_self\">Washington Capitals<\/a>. The team still does not have an update on their starting netminder. He left early in Tuesday&#8217;s contest vs the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/bruins\/\" target=\"_self\">Boston Bruins<\/a>. The club announced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/t\/tokardu01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dustin Tokarski<\/a> as the starter for tonight&#8217;s game.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Dustin Tokarski will start in net tonight against the Capitals, per interim head coach Don Granato.<\/p>\n<p>There is no update on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/u\/ullmali01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Linus Ullmark<\/a> yet. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LetsGoBuffalo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#LetsGoBuffalo<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/newyorklottery?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@newyorklottery<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ySINbtET9l\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/ySINbtET9l<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BuffaloSabres\/status\/1382712772920758278?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 15, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Sabres Linus Ullmark Injured<\/h2>\n<p>This is very sad as Ullmark is the only true bright spot in an otherwise abysmal 2020-21. The 27-year-old goalie had appeared in 19 games prior to this injury with a .917 save percentage and 2.64 goals-against-average. Those are very good numbers when you consider that he is playing behind one of the worst defences in hockey. Some of the peripheral stats aren&#8217;t spectacular, but the raw numbers are easily the best of any Sabres netminder this year.<\/p>\n<p>Buffalo originally drafted Ullmark in the sixth round of the 2012 Draft and has watched the Swede develop into one of the better goaltenders since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/millery01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ryan Miller<\/a> left the franchise in 2014. Ullmark&#8217;s 50 wins are 11th in franchise history and he in the top 15 for both save percentage and goals-against. He&#8217;s much closer to the top of the leaderboard in multiple categories when you exclude players who only appeared in handfuls of games. Nobody will confuse Ullmark for Miller or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/hasekdo01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dominik Hasek<\/a>, but he&#8217;s been quite solid for the Atlantic Division franchise.<\/p>\n<h3>How Buffalo Replaces Ullmark<\/h3>\n<p>There are no good or even average options to replace Ullmark. The main backup is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/huttoca01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carter Hutton<\/a>, however, he is injured as well and has struggled mightily this year. He has a save percentage of just .886 with a 3.47 goals-against. Both of those figures are career-worsts. It doesn&#8217;t get much better if Dustin Tokarski or Michael Houser start either.<\/p>\n<p>If the team struggles any more in the net, it might be time to see if Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is ready for a role. The former second-round pick is the team&#8217;s best prospect at the position. He&#8217;s struggled in the AHL, he remains the team&#8217;s most promising option. There is very little to lose by not trying him out as the season winds down if Ullmark is out long-term.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"Li80vMpgTb5Vhnwjlg5J0w\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.ca\/detail\/1232168506\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Li80vMpgTb5Vhnwjlg5J0w',sig:'z8QLO828p_1GzW0WulesM_fs1BifKqwHE-u7j9U2TkM=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1232168506',caption: true ,tld:'ca',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Buffalo Sabres goaltender Linus Ullmark will miss at least tonight&#8217;s game vs the Washington Capitals. The team still does not have an update on their starting netminder. He left early in Tuesday&#8217;s contest vs the Boston Bruins. The club announced Dustin Tokarski as the starter for tonight&#8217;s game. Dustin Tokarski will start in net [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3127,"featured_media":107376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4547,6671,34,4548],"tags":[1576,3476],"class_list":["post-107247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sabres","category-hockey","category-injuries","category-news","category-nhl","tag-injury","tag-linus-ullmark"],"modified_by":"Colton Osmond, Dept Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}