While Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark was supposed to get the start in tonight’s 4 Nations Face-Off finale for Sweden, that’s no longer the case. Aftonbladet’s Hans Abrahamsson first reported that the netminder is sick and won’t suit up versus Team USA. With Filip Gustavsson leaving Saturday’s game early with an illness as well, it will be Samuel Ersson who gets the nod. Ullmark was widely expected to be Sweden’s starter for this event but will wind up playing in just two periods overall, taking the overtime loss versus Finland. The outcome of this game will have no bearing on Thursday’s final as that will be a matchup of Canada and Team USA after Canada won their game in regulation this afternoon over Finland.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- Sammi Silber of The Hockey News relays that while Capitals winger Sonny Milano was skating in a non-contact jersey before the 4 Nations break, he’s still a ways away from returning to the lineup. The 28-year-old suffered an upper-body injury in his third game of the season and hasn’t played since. Assuming he’ll see some time with AHL Hershey on a conditioning assignment, it’s possible that Milano won’t be back until after the trade deadline when roster maximum sizes are no longer in effect.
- In an interview with Craig Morgan on Utah HC’s team site, GM Bill Armstrong indicated that there’s a chance that they could have all their injured players back coming out of the break. Center Logan Cooley suffered a lower-body injury at the end of January while blueliner Sean Durzi (shoulder) has been out since mid-October; getting both of them back would be a big boost for their attack. Meanwhile, defenseman Robert Bortuzzo (lower body) has missed more than a month while goalie Connor Ingram left the final game before the break with an upper-body issue so it appears they’re close to returning as well.
- From that same interview, Armstrong suggested that Utah has already done most of its team building already from the summer and early-season trade activity so the team is “already built to some degree”. They have six games left before the trade deadline and are six points out of the final Wild Card spot so being buyers would be a bit of a surprise. With that in mind, instead of team building, they could be doing some trimming with centers Alexander Kerfoot and Nick Bjugstad, blueliners Ian Cole and Olli Maatta, and goaltender Karel Vejmelka among the long list of pending unrestricted free agents this summer.
Still really hoping the Jackets do a trade-and-extend on Vejmelka.