ROCHESTER – For almost a year, Eric Comrie never felt comfortable in net. Every game, the goalie said, felt like a tryout for the Buffalo Sabres. He wondered if a bad goal allowed would cost him playing time or lead to a demotion.
“I always felt like I was the odd man out in that (three-goalie) situation, where if I had the bad game, it was like, ‘Well, you’re not going to see it for a month,’” Comrie told the Times Herald on Thursday.
This season, following a terrific training camp in which he forced the Sabres to keep him, Comrie, 28, earned a few early starts before getting injured. When he returned, he struggled as he received sporadic action behind rookie Devon Levi and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
Following his last outing Dec. 5, a spot start for a sick Luukkonen, Comrie watched 11 straight games. The writing was on the wall.
Comrie said the Sabres told him they would be waiving him prior to his official placement Dec. 31 to create a roster spot for winger Zemgus Girgensons. After he cleared, they sent him to the Rochester Americans.
Having played 213 games over parts of 10 seasons, Comrie’s no stranger to the AHL. Last season, he started three contests for the Amerks during a conditioning assignment.
He has embraced his latest stint in the minors, using it as an opportunity to develop a rhythm. It has helped that other established NHL players – the Sabres also waived center Tyson Jost and defensemen Jacob Bryson and Riley Stillman earlier this season – are in similar situations.
Many days, those players, some of Comrie’s closest friends – right now, Bryson’s with the Sabres – carpool together from Buffalo to Rochester.
Not long before being placed on waivers, Comrie seemed tense, offering only short replies to questions. Following Thursday’s practice in Blue Cross Arena, as he talked about the recent events in his career in the hallway outside of the Amerks’ dressing room, he was his normal loquacious self.
“Sometimes it’s a blessing in disguise,” said Comrie, who has a 4.01 goals-against average and an .863 save percentage in seven games with the Sabres this season. “You learn the most from your hardships, and I think I’ve come down here and really embraced a lot of things and (I’ve been) trying to find that love for the game again and trying to really just enjoy everything I have.”
So far, Comrie said he has enjoyed having “consistent playing time, consistent practice time, consistency just getting on the ice.”
He has played three games, compiling a 2-1-0 record with a 1.67 goals-against average, a gaudy .951 save percentage and one shutout.
“He has an amazing attitude and (he’s) a great teammate,” said coach Seth Appert, whose Amerks host the Utica Comets tonight. “That allows you to handle a lot of adversity in the right way.”
In Buffalo, Comrie, who signed a two-year, $3.6 million contract in 2022, said he felt like every game he had to make sure he was dialed in.
“I think it kind of got to me,” he said.
With the Amerks, he has recaptured some of the feeling he had in 2021-22, when he served as Connor Hellebuyck’s backup with the Winnipeg Jets the entire season.
“Just go out there and enjoy the one game you have instead of being stressed about the outcomes you can’t control,” Comrie said. “And I think coming down here, being able to play more and understanding, hey, you’re going to play even if it doesn’t go as well. You’re going to get the next game no matter what.
“I can kind of just dive back, relax a little bit and just let the game kind of happen a little more.”
These days, however, Comrie’s still one of three goalies on the roster. The Amerks also have veteran Dustin Tokarski, a decorated AHL netminder who has played 42 games for the Sabres, and Devin Cooley.
The Sabres are paying them a combined $2.65 million this season.
Appert said he has tried to handle his three goalies with “honesty.”
“Right now, we happen to have three goalies that all should be playing,” he said. “Sometimes those are hard conversations. I’m not afraid to have hard conversations with my players. I spend a lot of time with our players to develop relationships.”
So Appert maps out a goaltending schedule. He doesn’t want anyone sitting out two weeks. In a week with three games, he said the Amerks would “lean toward” Comrie receiving more starts.
Comrie said Appert’s “very, very, very communicative.”
“I know exactly what’s going to happen, when it’s going to happen, how it’s going to happen, which I never had before in my life,” he said. “That’s just not normal anywhere.”
Comrie could still have a future in Buffalo. He backed up Luukkonen on Saturday afternoon when the Sabres assigned Levi to Rochester to start one game. If they send Levi to the AHL again for regular action – they did in late November before Luukkonen got sick – Comrie would likely swap places with him.
He has embraced his latest stint in the minors, using it as an opportunity to develop a rhythm. It has helped that other established NHL players – the Sabres also waived center Tyson Jost and defensemen Jacob Bryson and Riley Stillman earlier this season – are in similar situations.
The above: classic Sabres mismanagement.