Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres headed to Winnipeg on Monday with three goalies on the depth chart.
Malcolm Subban practiced in full, and is likely to play in one of the back-to-back games this week against the Minnesota Wild on Thursday or the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday. During practice, Subban showed up with a new mask.
Sabres head coach Don Granato wouldn’t give a timetable on when forward Casey Mittelstadt may be back, but he did say his prognosis is better than first anticipated, which is a best-case scenario.
Goalie Dustin Tokarski is back in Buffalo after an 11-day quarantine in Florida.
“He goes into the skates to get his conditioning level back up, and he’ll join us, my guess is, when we return from this trip,” Granato said of his veteran goalie after Monday's practice.
Drake Caggiula has been out of the lineup since Nov. 26 with an upper-body injury.
“We’re keeping Drake back to skate," Granato said of the veteran winger. "We still don’t have a timetable with him, but it’s encouraging that he’s out there and doing a little bit more on the ice each day.”
Meanwhile, Alex Tuch missed Monday's session because he wasn’t feeling well.
Seth Appert is back coaching the Rochester Americans after a bout with COVID-19. He announced on Monday that forward Jack Quinn has tested positive for mononucleosis and won’t be back until after Christmas.
At the time Quinn went out of the lineup, he was the leading scorer in the American Hockey League with 11 goals and 13 assists for 24 points in 17 games.
The Amerks went on pause due to COVID-19 and had three games postponed. Quinn then missed the first two games back from the break. He’s now 10 points behind Chicago Wolves captain Andrew Poturalski from West Seneca.
Victor Olofsson has been back for 11 games since missing eight with an injury. The winger hasn’t scored since being back, but does have six assists. His line with Jeff Skinner and Tage Thompson was red-hot for a while, but Olofsson hasn’t scored in 11 games, Thompson has no goals and one assist in seven games and Skinner has no goals and one assist in five games.
Those are three of the Sabres' most dangerous players, so that may be a large part of the reason the team has just three goals in three games. Despite the slump, Granato still likes the trio together.
“That line has a lot of chemistry, and Victor’s had chemistry with [Rasmus] Asplund as well, so it’s nice to see," Granato said. "That means he’s doing the right things, because whoever you put with him, there’s visible signs that they can produce, and they do produce.”
Granato thinks on the ice, Olofsson is doing the things that he should, even if it hasn't resulted with the puck in the back of the net.
“Some days it bounces for you and some days it doesn’t, but he’s got to keep working the way he has,” Granato said.
I haven’t seen the same player at all since he’s come back. Olofsson hasn’t been willing to battle and has stayed away from the high-traffic areas. He just now is willing to take the one-timer again; he just looked like he was playing hurt.
“His injury inhibited his shooting, and that’s his game," Granato said "Even when he came back, he wasn’t at 100% shooting. So he’s getting more and more comfortable, and getting back to it with his timing.”
The shooting part of the equation was also confirmed by Olofsson, and, of course, it’s been frustrating for him.
“It was kind of a weird injury," Olofsson said following Monday's practice. "It can’t get worse, but it’s still been bothering me a lot with the shooting. For sure when I came back, it felt OK in the beginning of each game, but it got more sore as the games went on. But right now, I feel great.”
Olofsson says he no longer has any issues shooting. When you’re shooting like this kid is, you pretty much take his game away with an injury like this.
“It’s been challenging, because I like to shoot the puck a lot and I haven’t been able to work on my shot since last month," Olofsson said. "So I’ve tried to be more creative with the puck.”
Going into the shootout with the Washington Capitals, Olofsson was a career 0-for-5 on his attempts. He finally scored his first shootout goal, and he thinks that will give him the confidence he needs.
"I did score on a penalty shot last year, but that was in the game. It was nice to get that first one,” Olofsson admitted.
It seems like Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will remain in net on Tuesday against the Winnipeg Jets. Despite three phenomenal games played, he’s still 0-2-1 this season.
