Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – Buffalo Sabres head coach Don Granato held an optional skate on Saturday, as his team gets ready for the injury riddled Philadelphia Flyers.
Mattias Samuelsson took part in the skate after missing Thursday’s game against the St. Louis Blues. Granato says there’s hope he’ll play on Saturday.
“He gauged it this morning, he went out earlier this morning and felt good. Then we pushed him through more, so we’ll see how he’s responding to that and give him the afternoon. If he responds fine, he’ll go in,” said Granato following Saturday's skate.
With the Sabres set to play back-to-back games against the Flyers on Saturday and Sunday, both goalies will likely play. He just said he hadn’t decided on who goes Saturday.
Granato also changed the lines during Friday’s practice, and he confirmed that these will be the lines we see on Saturday:
Friday’s lines:
Forwards:
Skinner – Thompson – Olofsson
Asplund – Cozens – Okposo
Krebs – Mittelstadt – Tuch
Bjork – Girgensons – Hinostroza
Hayden – Eakin
Defense:
Bryson – Dahlin
Power – Jokiharju
Butcher – Fitzgerald
Miller – Pysyk
Buffalo lost to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday because of a red-hot goalie in Jordan Binnington.
Since March 1, the Sabres had been avoiding losing streaks, but this gauntlet against some of the best teams in the league has given them four losses in five games, and five losses in seven. In those seven games, the Sabres have averaged 2.86 goals per-game, but have given up 4.14 goals per-game.
The Sabres beat Philadelphia in Buffalo back in January, 6-3, despite former Sabres defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen scoring.
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Ristolainen missed the last game due to an upper-body injury. Others who are out hurt for the Flyers include Sean Couturier, Cam Atkinson, Carter Hart, Ryan Ellis, Cam York, Nick Seeler, Patrick Brown and Nate Thompson.
Casey Mittelstadt had started putting up points, getting 10 points in 10 games, but recently has gone four games without a point. Meanwhile, his linemates during that time - Victor Olofsson and Rasmus Asplund - Olofsson has 11 goals and 17 points in 22 games, and 14 points in his last 16 games, while Asplund has four points in six games.
Philadelphia has lost eight of 10 games. They’ve given up 18 goals in their last three games, including nine to the Washington Capitals.
One bright spot lately for Philadelphia has been James van Riemsdyk. He has eight goals in his last 18 games after slumping for most of the season.
The Flyers are 29th in the NHL with a points percentage of .385, while the Sabres are 25th at .428.
Don’t forget that Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams will have his last monthly appearance on WGR at around 6:10 p.m. ET. Join Brian Koziol and myself for pregame coverage starting at 6 p.m. ET.
