Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – As the Buffalo Sabres get ready for Tuesday's final preseason home game against the Carolina Hurricanes, they only made one change to the lineup from Monday’s practice.
Vinnie Hinostroza was practicing on the right wing with Tage Thompson and Jeff Skinner on Tuesday morning. That leaves Victor Olofsson, Riley Sheahan and Anders Bjork as healthy scratches for the game.
The six defensemen you’ll likely see on Oct. 13 for opening night are all playing on Tuesday.
As far as goaltender, it will be Craig Anderson starting, as head coach Don Granato says the team will see how it goes before seeing if he plays the entire game.
"It’s all about getting ready with how many minutes guys need, so we’ll let him do that," said Granato after the morning skate. "But we’ll have him in, and ‘Uppie’ [Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen] will be backing up tonight.”
Granato has said that some of his players want to play in both of the final two preseason games, because there’s still a lot of time before the opener.
“Because we went down to the number that we did with a focus on practice and the last two games in the course of a lot of days, this is a good look at what we have, but everything’s a progression," Granato said. "We just know from Game 1, we just have to get better in Game 2.”
When it comes to the final spot on the roster, Granato and general manager Kevyn Adams have to decide if they want to keep two extra forwards and one extra defenseman, or two extra defenders and one extra forward.
“Typically you have extra forwards, you need extra forwards," Granato said. "There’s a little bit more grind and probably more injuries there, so because of that, you lean that way.”
To get down to 23 players, one player may need to be waived. Jacob Bryson, Casey Fitzgerald, Bjork or Sheahan would all have to be waived to go down to the Rochester Americans.
“You’ve got a number of guys that don’t need waivers that could go down, and so they could. You have to look at all of it, but we don’t have to make those decisions yet," Granato said. "We have two more games, but certainly we’re thinking about it, and will it come down to that? It could, but my mind isn’t even concerned with that.”
This is me thinking out loud, because Granato has never said this, but I have to believe when he said somebody could go down to Rochester without waivers, he’s talking about JJ Peterka. To me, he’s struggled throughout training camp and in his three preseason games.
“I wouldn’t think it’s unnatural if he is, and I would think he probably is going to press," Granato said on Monday when asked if Peterka was pressing his play.
“He’s taking in so much information that he’s never had that. I don’t know if pressing is it, or he might be more conscious than he normally is. We want to get him playing on instinct, but before he can do that, he has to learn what areas that he’s really responsible for. So I think he’s more aware of that.”
Others that could go down without waivers are Peyton Krebs, Jack Quinn, Dylan Cozens, Lawrence Pilut, Mattias Samuelsson and Owen Power.
Join me and Brian Koziol for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 6:45 p.m. ET.
Losi and Gangi
