Some surprising news from the Sabres Tuesday night -- they have called up Travis Turnbull on an emergency basis from the Rochester Amerks. Turnbull, 25, would make his NHL debut if he plays Wednesday against Montreal.
The Sabres clearly have some sort of injury or illness among the forwards that they are concerned enough about to need another body. Because they didn't practice Tuesday it's hard to tell who it might be.
Thomas Vanek has been largely invisible in recent games and is clearly bothered by neck problems in the wake of the check he took March 7 in Boston from Johnny Boychuk. Another candidate might be Patrick Kaleta, who went on the ice Tuesday with Tyler Myers and may have been testing some sort of injury.
We'll have to wait for Wednesday's morning skate to see what's up. Turnbull has 12 goals, 15 assists and 94 penalty minutes this year for Rochester. He was a 2009 free-agent signing from the University of Michigan. He's the son of Perry Turnbull, a veteran of 608 NHL games in the 1980s.
---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)
