It looks like the coaching staff saw what we saw in Victor Bartley, and left him out of the lineup in favour of the debuting Ellis.
Let's look at Ellis' road to the NHL:
Drafted in the 4th round, 117th overall in 2010
4 full QMJHL seasons
3 full AHL seasons
1 full season going back and forth between the AHL and the ECHL. This was last year, not his first pro year...that's hard to go through.
All of this led to his debut last night. Performance aside, what a moment for the lad.