Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – Casey Mittelstadt and Zemgus Girgensons missed practice on Wednesday. Buffalo Sabres head coachg Don Granato said Girgensons has been dealing with a nagging injury, so it was a good day to rest him. Malcolm Subban did a rehab skate on his own and will again on Thursday.
Mittelstadt had just gotten back recently from an injury he suffered opening night when he left the game Tuesday in the third period. Granato said the team is still gathering information, but admitted on Wednesday he could dealing be a long-term issue.
So the question then becomes, what if it is?
Jack Quinn is leading the American Hockey League in scoring with 11 goals and 13 assists for 24 points in 17 games. J.J. Peterka has four goals and 14 assists for 18 points in 17 games and Peyton Krebs has one goal and 11 assists for 12 points in 12 games.
Don Granato understands what proper development is for two 20-years-olds and a 19-year-old, but the temptation is always there to rush it, “There’s a big temptation, yes. When you go to Rochester and you see the skill level of those kids, there’s a big temptation that’s tough to fight at times, but we want to make sure we’re doing the right thing for the long-term and it’s tough because you’re in the moment, the emotion of the day and you can make a lot of decisions under the pressure of that for that fix that could jeopardize the vision that we have.
“The vision and the big picture that we have, we feel we have a great opportunity because we have some serious talent in our organization and we’ve seen the Mittelstadts and Thompsons and Cozens just evolve their game to show some spectacular things and they weren’t showing those things and pretty recently they weren’t even in the lineup, so the progress is so visible and the ceiling for those guys is immense, so when we think of that and dipping into Rochester, that’s the consideration. We want guys to get towards that ceiling faster, than slower and we want to protect that progression.”
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen played his first NHL game this season and fifth overall on Tuesday. He was good only surrendering two goals and with him being 22-years-old, the same goes for him according to Granato, “He is in the developmental phase of his career and Rochester is a great spot for a guy to develop, but we have an opportunity here, so we’re going to throw him in here, but we don’t want him to lose perspective that he’s in a developmental situation and this is a bonus that he gets to play a NHL game, so let’s use it as a positive and make sure it doesn’t stunt any growth or development.”
Other players that would fall into that category are 21-year-old Mattias Samuelsson, 22-year-old Oskari Laaksonen and 23-year-old Linus Weissbach.
***Photo: Micheline Michaelina (@MiMiV4682)
