Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – The Sabres and Philadelphia Flyers will complete their home-and-home series on Friday night in Downtown Buffalo.
Alex Tuch missed practice on Thursday, but confirmed after the morning skate that he’s playing on Friday.
"Yesterday was just a maintenance day. No issues, no concerns," said Tuch following his skate. "I never thought for a second I wasn’t going to play tonight."
Lukas Rousek was called up from the Rochester Americans on Thursday, and Sabres head coach Don Granato says he will play. Brandon Biro is also up and playing, which isn’t a good sign for winger Victor Olofsson.
"We have an opportunity, obviously, with [Zach] Benson shifting to IR to recover, [Eric] Comrie on IR... to see what we have in our organization," said Granato following Friday's optional skate. "Two guys that were real good through camp and have been progressively real good in Rochester. Now is that window of opportunity to get a greater look at what we have depth-wise in our organization."
Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will play in his fifth-straight game on Friday. He’s 3-1-0 so far this season with a 2.60 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage.
Buffalo has had mixed results at home, and Tuch knows that has to be better.
"We need to come in tonight and get the momentum from our fans, because we’ve got to start making this arena one that’s really hard to play in," the winger said. "It starts with us, and then the fans coming in.
"We’ve had some really good crowds so far, and to have that happen, we’ve got to continue to win."
Having a .500 record at home isn’t remotely good enough. Buffalo has beaten the Tampa Bay Lightning, Colorado Avalanche and New York Islanders at home, but have lost to the New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens and Calgary Flames.
Buffalo has won two-straight games overall, and three of their last four. They are scoring goals again with 19 goals in four games. Buffalo now is 14th in goal scoring, averaging 3.20 goals per-game.
Defensively, the Sabres are improved thanks to Luukkonen and Comrie in goal. Buffalo currently sits in 11th with a 2.90 goals-against average.
Tuch has a four-game point streak, where he has picked up six points.
Rasmus Dahlin had his eight-game point streak snapped in Philadelphia on Wednesday. Jeff Skinner extended his to six games, scoring four goals and five assists for nine points.
Tage Thompson has four goals in four games, and eight points in four games.
Connor Clifton returns on Friday after serving his two-game NHL suspension for his head hit to New Jersey Devils captain Nico Hischier. He’ll replace Jacob Bryson on the back end.
Buffalo is also fifth in the NHL right now in penalty killing, currently at a 90% rate.
The Flyers have lost three-straight games and five out of six. Buffalo found a way to win when they didn’t have their best game on Wednesday, and Granato knows that happens sometimes.
"You certainly don’t want to discredit the other night, because you have to find ways to win," he said. "I’ve said for a while, this team needs to score and get back to scoring, and having that mentality. That came through for us the other night. But the great thing is to play back-to-back, and we know we need to play better tonight, and we know we can play better. I thought a lot of guys didn’t look like themselves the other night, and I think they’ll be better. And then you get to make some adjustments, and I think based on the other day, we can make a couple of adjustments that should help us."
Philadelphia got some bad news injury wise on Friday, as starting goalie Carter Hart is out with a mid-body injury sustained in Wednesday's loss. Sean Couturier is also out day-to-day, as he deals with a lower-body injury. The center missed almost two full years with injuries, and started this season with eight points in 10 games.
Samuel Ersson is 0-2-1 this season with a 4.91 goals-against average and a .763 save percentage. He'll be in net for the Flyers on Friday.
Former Sabres draft pick Cal Petersen, who burned the Sabres by not signing in Buffalo and inked a deal with the Los Angeles Kings, has been called up from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. He was 1-3-0 with a 3.76 goals-against average and an .884 save percentage in the AHL.
In 101 NHL games with the Kings, Petersen was 44-42-10 with a 2.92 goals-against average and a .905 save percentage.
Join Schopp and the Bulldog for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 6 p.m. ET when you’ll hear from Granato, Tuch, Dahlin and Casey Mittelstadt.
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