Despite having the top-scoring offense in the league with an average of four goals per game, the Sabres find themselves eight points out of a playoff spot heading into today’s action. However, they could be getting some much-needed help between the pipes soon as Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News reports (Twitter link) that Buffalo has sent goaltender Eric Comrie to AHL Rochester on a conditioning stint and he will make the start against Toronto this afternoon.
Comrie is in his first season with the team after signing a two-year, $3.6MM deal with them back in July. The 27-year-old sustained a lower-body injury back in mid-November, one that was expected to keep him out for four weeks. It’s a little past that point already but with him getting an AHL start today, he’s very close to returning.
This season, Comrie has posted a 3.62 GAA along with a .887 SV% in 11 starts, numbers that aren’t particularly strong. However, he hasn’t had a lot of goal support relative to Craig Anderson and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen as four of Comrie’s seven losses have come with Buffalo scoring two or fewer goals. Now with the team being more consistently dangerous offensively, a better performance from Comrie is certainly possible.
His pending return is also good news for the Sabres in terms of developing Luukkonen. Comrie’s addition was intended to allow the 23-year-old to get a heavy workload in the minors but with Comrie’s absence and Anderson being the oldest player in the league, he has basically been in a timeshare situation lately. Once Comrie returns to the Sabres, that should change and Luukkonen can go back to being the starter for the Americans as planned.
“numbers that aren’t particularly strong …”
Well, I suppose you can’t really say “numbers that suck.”