What looked to be a short-term absence due to illness for Sabres winger Jason Zucker has now become a longer one. Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic notes (Twitter link) that the veteran hasn’t been able to eat solid food in nine days while battling the illness and has lost considerable weight as a result. Accordingly, he’s going to need a bit of a build-up from a conditioning standpoint once he’s able to eat again before he can be cleared to return. Zucker had been off to a solid start to his season before being sidelined, picking up four goals and three assists in a dozen games, providing the type of secondary scoring that Buffalo has been lacking for a while now.
Elsewhere around the NHL:
- Stars winger Adam Erne will miss at least a couple of weeks due to a lower-body injury, relays Robert Tiffin of D Magazine (Twitter link). He will leave the team’s road trip to return home for treatment. One of the few players to earn a full-season contract off a training camp PTO, the 30-year-old has largely been a regular for Dallas, playing in 14 of 17 games so far. In those outings, Erne has two goals and an assist along with 44 hits in 9:37 per night of playing time.
- Daniil Miromanov’s second NHL stint of the season was short-lived. After recalling him on Sunday, the Flames announced (Twitter link) that they have returned him to AHL Calgary. The 28-year-old didn’t see any action while on recall and has just one NHL appearance on the season. Miromanov cleared waivers last month and has spent most of the season in the minors with the Wranglers where he has four points in seven games. Calgary now has one open roster spot with a second coming tomorrow once Justin Kirkland’s waiver period expires.
The Sabres are cursed. Someone call an exorcist.