New York, NY (WGR 550) – It’s two days short of a month since Colten Ellis was run over in Edmonton by the Oilers David Tomasek. I didn’t think Tomasek did much to try to avoid Ellis and he also elbowed him in the head.

The referees called him for goaltender interference and 33 seconds later, Josh Doan scored on the power play to give the Sabres a 1-0 lead. It was then that Ellis left the crease and headed to the dressing room. On Tuesday he told me that he did not leave on his own, the NHL concussion spotter sent him off the ice.

Ellis went into concussion protocol and hasn’t played since. All indications point to him getting the net Thursday in New York against the Rangers. As far as what Ellis thinks of the hit, he does not think it was dirty,

“I don’t think there was any intent there, I think he’s just trying to take the puck hard to the net.”

As far as him shaking off the concussion, he said he was done with it pretty quickly,

“When something like that happens, it’s really disappointing, and the first few days of it it was just kind of standard, with concussion protocol and then once I was a week into it I started feeling really good and I only missed a couple of days on the ice, so we were able to do little things and build it up again.”

This is Ellis’ first NHL season and he’s had time in between starts a couple of times. Buffalo claimed him off waivers from the St. Louis Blues on Oct. 6, but he didn’t get into a game until Oct. 22 which was 16 days plus the time he had been idle in St. Louis. The off time didn’t affect him as he won his NHL debut stopping 29-of-31 shots vs the Detroit Red Wings.

He then went from that start until Nov. 12 which is three full weeks. That one didn’t go so well as he surrendered four goals on 36 shots in Utah to the Mammoth. In November he went 10 days in between appearances and that was another good start as he was stellar in the upset win over the Wild in Minnesota stopping 22-of-24 pucks. When he hits the ice in New York, it’ll be one day short of a month. With that kind of experience behind him, he knows what to do to stay ready,

“I try to work hard and work on my game and I approach it the same way I would as if I was playing, because you’ve got to be ready when your name is called and for the last month I’ve tried to do that every day.”

In the game he left in Edmonton, Ellis played 19:01 and stopped all six shots he faced. Before that he had two excellent starts and two pretty bad starts. In Philadelphia Ellis surrendered five goals to the Flyers on 35 shots. Then came the Minnesota game I talked about earlier. At home the Calgary Flames lit him up for six goals on 35 shots and in the home game vs the Oilers, he only allowed one goal on 33 shots.

Overall Ellis is 4-3-0 with a 3.25 goals against and .895 save percentage.
Being a rookie Ellis has had the opportunity to have a veteran goalie with him in Alex Lyon. He said that has been invaluable to him,

“It’s the same for both of them, they’ve both been really good since I came in and they’re really good for having those conversations where I’m asking different questions about different scenarios and they both have been in the league for many years now and have seen a lot of stuff.

“I just get to pick their brain and have those conversations on a daily basis is definitely really helpful to me.”

This is Ellis’ first trip to Madison Square Garden and he can’t wait to play in such an iconic place,

“Yes big time, MSG, it’ll be a pretty cool experience and I’ve heard nothing but great things about any event they put on there for Rangers games and how loud the crowd is, so looking forward to that.”

After Wednesday’s action the Sabres remain in the Eastern Conference’s second Wild Card position with a points percentage of .585. The Pittsburgh Penguins have the first Wild Card spot at .598. In the Atlantic Division, the Detroit Red Wings are third at .614.