Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - Tuesday’s practice for the Buffalo Sabres was a day for three of their walking wounded to return to practice. Forwards Zach Benson and Jordan Greenway, as well as goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen were all on the ice, with Benson being the only one that has a chance to play Wednesday against the Ottawa Senators.
By the way, the Sens will be without captain Brady Tkachuk, who will miss, at least, a month with a hand injury.
Benson was wearing a plastic cage, protecting his face. Last week in practice, Benson got hit on the cheek with a puck. He came back and finished practice, and the next thing he knew, he was in the hospital.
"I went and got stitches, and it kept blowing up on me," Benson said following Tuesday's practice. "I got to the point where I thought it would be best to go to the emergency room, and thankfully I did. I had to get some blood removed out of my face, and I’m thankful for the doctors and the care I had.
"It definitely puts things in a different perspective. It wasn’t super, super alarming, but you’re staying the night in the hospital, you see life from a different perspective."
Benson laughed off having to wear a plastic shield.
"It saves me from getting punched in the face," he said.
He says wearing it in practice wasn’t too bad.
"I thought it would be worse. It actually wasn’t that bad," Benson added. "It fogs up a bit, but we’ve got great equipment managers (Dave Williams and George Babcock), so they’ll help me wipe it down during the game."
Benson’s game is the kind of energy that has been missing from the Sabres in the first three games.
"I’m pretty fired up to get going," Benson said. "I think the energy around the room is we’re all excited to get going tomorrow, and fired up to get off this losing skid and get some good vibes going on around this barn."
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen says he’s over the pain, and felt good in Tuesday's practice. Luukkonen has only played one period since last April, and head coach Lindy Ruff didn’t rule out a rehab assignment in Rochester.
"I think that’s always a possibility," he said following Tuesday's practice. "We’ll just evaluate how these couple of practices go, and if we get him game ready and we’re really getting good hockey out of Lyon, we might have to get him into some game action."
Getting to Jordan Greenway, he had surgery before last season ended, and was pretty upset this summer when he found out the pain wouldn’t go away and he needed another procedure.
“We had surgery last December and it was unsuccessful in the sense that it didn’t take away all the pain. So I had more intrusive surgery this summer," Greenway detailed on Tuesday.
Greenway has been hurt before, but this time, it was different for him.
"There’s been a lot of ups and downs, for sure," Greenway acknowledged. "It’s been mentally probably the most frustrating thing I’ve been through in my career, but the only thing I can do is go out here and do what I need to do to get back on the ice."
Jiri Kulich was centering a line with Mason Geertsen and Greenway on Tuesday. While that doesn’t mean he’ll be scratched on Wednesday, there was a definite message there from Ruff.
"It hasn’t been good enough. We need to be better, he needs to be a better player," Ruff said. "He needs to make more plays, he needs to skate more. His skating inside the game hasn’t been where it was last year. He needs to be a better player for us."
TUESDAY'S LINES:
Benson - Thompson - Tuch
Quinn - Krebs - Danforth
Zucker - McLeod - Doan
Dunne - Kozak - Malenstyn
Geertsen - Kulich - Greenway
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