Buffalo N.Y. (WGR 550) - The Buffalo Sabres finished up a two-game road trip down South this past weekend with 5-3 losses to both the Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lighting.
As Buffalo gets set to return home for a four-game homestand, the team currently sits at 7-5-0 in the standings, with this latest run at home getting kicked off against the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday.
The Sabres are still depleted on the blue line, and were without All-Star defenseman Rasmus Dahlin on Saturday night in Tampa Bay. The good news for Buffalo, though, is he is expected to return to the lineup on Tuesday.
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As for the rest of the battered defensive group, Sabres head coach Don Granato still sees Mattias Samuelson being out of the lineup for another 2-3 weeks, but has yet to suffer any sort of setback. As for defenseman Henri Jokiharju, he is still considered day-by-day, and it still waiting for the proper clearance to get back to practice with his teammates.
With the injuries suffered on the Buffalo blue line, that has seen rookie Owen Power needing to play a lot more minutes for the Sabres. Through 12 games this season, the 19-year-old is already averaging 23:09 of total ice-time, including 28:14 of ice-time on Saturday in Tampa Bay.
Despite the additional workload that Power is facing given the injuries, Granato is not worried about throwing him into the deep end.
“One of our core philosophies is that these guys connect with the love and passion of playing hockey, so they play with passion for our fans,” said Granato on Tuesday during his weekly appearance on the "Howard and Jeremy Show" on WGR.
As Dahlin is set to return to the lineup on Tuesday, Granato feels that both him and Power have the talent and the work ethic to lead them to becoming more of an elite player in the National Hockey League.
As the Sabres get ready for their upcoming homestand, and look to bounce back from a pair of tough losses on Friday and Saturday, Granato does not want to make a big deal of using moral victories out of losses.
“They’re very upset that they lost," Granato said with Howard Simon and Jeremy White. "There were ways to win it within the game, we didn’t feel good. A lot of guys didn’t look like themselves in Carolina, but that doesn’t mean you can’t win. You've got to play a different way to find a way to win.”
Hear more of Granato’s appearance during the “Howard and Jeremy Show” in the player below:
