It appears Mike Babcock will find himself back behind the bench, but it won't be in the NHL.

The Saskatoon native will be announced as the next head coach of the University of Saskatchewan's men's hockey team, TSN's Darren Dreger reports.

Babcock recently accepted a role as a studio analyst with NBC and has appeared on several NHL broadcasts this season.

The 57-year-old served as an NHL head coach for 17 seasons, most recently with the Toronto Maple Leafs from 2015-2019. He came under scrutiny after his firing for using what some believed to be controversial tactics with his players.

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The Anaheim Ducks placed veteran forward Adam Henrique on waivers, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.

Henrique, 31, has three years remaining on his contract beyond this season with an annual cap hit of $5.82 million. The Ducks signed him prior to the 2019-20 campaign.

The 6-foot pivot led Anaheim in goals (26) and points (43) through 71 games last season but has amassed just four points over 16 contests this year.

Henrique has collected 189 goals and 193 assists over 681 career games since the New Jersey Devils drafted him in the third round in 2008.

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Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen will miss more time as he continues to recover from a difficult battle with COVID-19.

Ristolainen, 26, detailed his struggles with significant drops in oxygen levels, intense chest pain, and fatigue to Finnish newspaper Ilta-Sanomat on Friday, according to The Buffalo News' Lance Lysowski and Mike Harrington via Google Translate.

The Sabres had an outbreak in late January and were kept off the ice for 14 days. Blue-liner Jake McCabe, who also had COVID-19, says Ristolainen's scary experience proves how serious the virus is.

"I was texting with 'Risto' and we were both going through it together," McCabe said, according to Lysowski and Harrington. "So obviously, he had a little bit of a worse case than I did and maybe not even a little bit, a lot worse.

"It just goes to show how crazy and serious this virus really is. And Risto is probably the fittest guy on our team. For him to battle like this, it's very tough and unfortunate."

Head coach Ralph Krueger says it will be a "long process" for Ristolainen to return to the lineup because of what he's gone through.

The 6-foot-4 rearguard has tallied two goals and six points while logging a team-high 23:34 of average ice time over 10 games this season.

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Ralph Krueger believes his Buffalo Sabres are dealing with a crisis of confidence.

The head coach said it was evident in a 3-1 loss to the Washington Capitals on Thursday.

"One of my biggest takes out of that game was the fragile psychological state of the team right now," Krueger told the Buffalo News' Mike Harrington on Friday. "And (the importance of) managing that properly so that there is an edge, but that the edge doesn't go over to being too tight - which is exactly what is our biggest enemy at the moment. Everybody's trying to play within the right principles, they're trying to execute properly and almost squeezing our sticks too hard.

"They're fragile right now," he added. "They don't believe in themselves and they don't see themselves celebrating; they see themselves missing the net, hitting the shaft of the goalie, not finding the hole between the legs that they usually find."

Buffalo entered Friday's action ranking near the bottom of the league with a 4-7-2 record. The Sabres did not play at all in the first two weeks of February due to postponements after many of their players landed on the NHL's COVID-19 protocol list and Krueger tested positive. However, Buffalo has lost three straight games since resuming play, scoring only two goals combined in those defeats - both coming on the power play.

Before Friday's games, the Sabres ranked last in the league in goals for percentage at 35.71, but sat 13th in expected goals percentage with a favorable rate of 51.51, according to Natural Stat Trick.

The team's best players have been largely unlucky to begin the season. Jack Eichel has produced 12 points but only two goals in 13 games and has authored a 4.5 shooting percentage. That's well below his average of 10.8 from previous campaigns. Taylor Hall has collected only a goal to go along with his eight assists in 13 contests while shooting at just a 3% clip, down from his average of 10.4 in past seasons.

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Calgary Flames general manager Brad Treliving wants to make one thing clear about Sam Bennett's desire for a trade: The team controls where the forward plays.

"Sam's agent decided to have a conversation with the media in talking about changes of scenery and all that," Treliving said Friday on Sportsnet 960 The FAN. "We'll determine - whether it be Sam Bennett or anybody else - what their scenery is and when it's going to change, and until such time, Sam is a member of the Calgary Flames and he's like every other member of the Calgary Flames.

"We think Sam's a hell of a player, and we expect him to be a real good player here, and we'll go from there."

In late January, Bennett's agent, Darren Ferris, said his client would like Calgary to deal him. Two days later, the team said Bennett and his camp hadn't approached the Flames with a trade request.

The 24-year-old has played well for Calgary in the playoffs, but his regular-season struggles have continued in 2021. Bennett has collected only two goals and an assist in 15 games this season.

Calgary made him a healthy scratch shortly after his public request. The Flames moved him into their top six alongside Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan after Bennett returned to the lineup. However, he's since been relegated to fourth-line duties.

Bennett has spent his entire career with the Flames, who drafted him fourth overall in 2014.

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We split again Thursday to take our current run to 12-4.

Let's try to push back on a few splits in a row now with a sweep of this weekend's card.

Oilers (+100) @ Flames (-120)
Feb. 19, 9 p.m. ET

Round 2 of the Battle of Alberta is slated for Friday night, with the third installment to follow Saturday. We backed the Calgary Flames in the first meeting a couple of weeks ago and were rewarded with a 6-4 win, but we're changing course tonight.

The Edmonton Oilers have been on a bit of a tear since then, with four wins from five. It's not just that they're winning, though, but more about how they're winning. They've controlled 58% of the expected goal share and generated 3.3 expected goals per 60 minutes across the last five games, and enter this rematch as one of the league's hottest offenses.

To make matters worse for a suddenly struggling Flames side, David Rittich will get the start tonight in the first game of this back-to-back, with Jacob Markstrom finally getting a breather. There's a massive difference between the two netminders; since the start of last season, Rittich has a minus-4.69 GSAA compared to an 11.56 mark for Markstrom. He hasn't started a game since Feb. 2, and this is a brutal first game back in the crease against an Oilers offense firing on all cylinders.

Pick: Oilers (+100)

Panthers (-170) @ Red Wings (+150)
Feb. 20, 5 p.m.

The lookahead line for this game is about on par with what's being offered in the first leg of the back-to-back on Friday, but any significant movement will likely be toward the Florida Panthers. That works in our favor, as I'm circling the Detroit Red Wings as a great value bet in this spot.

With Chris Driedger confirmed as Friday's starter, Sergei Bobrovsky will man the crease in Saturday's rematch. That's a massive drop-off in goal for the Panthers, from Driedger's 3.91 GSAA and 1.36 GSAx to Bobrovsky's minus-5.11 GSAA and minus-8.18 GSAx. The Russian netminder's performances have fallen off a cliff since signing his megadeal, and it's hard to justify laying this sort of juice on Florida with him in goal.

The Red Wings go from Thomas Greiss to Jonathan Bernier, with the difference between the two negligible. Results have been hard to come by for them, but the underlying numbers suggest better days are ahead. They've been very competitive of late, proving a tough out as a really strong unit at five-on-five.

Included in this stretch are four games against the Panthers, of which the Wings had the better of play in each. They deserved more than a 1-2-1 record, but each of those three losses was by a single goal, while the win was a convincing 4-1 result. With Bobrovsky essentially assured of the start, this is the perfect spot to back Detroit to get back into the win column at a generous price.

Pick: Red Wings (+150 or better)

(Odds source: theScore Bet)

Alex Moretto is theScore's supervising editor of sports betting. A journalism graduate from Guelph-Humber University, he has worked in sports media for over a decade. He will bet on anything from the Super Bowl to amateur soccer, despises how the NHL handles starting goalie announcements, and will never trust a kicker. Find him on Twitter @alexjmoretto.

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