Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres have some injuries they’re trying to work through before playing the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday afternoon.
Mattias Samuelsson and Jeff Skinner practiced fully on Friday, while Henri Jokiharju was limited with body soreness.
Sabres head coach Don Granato says he liked what he saw from Samuelsson, and Skinner had a grin on his face when I asked him if he’s a possibility. He said it would be up to Granato and the doctors.
Meanwhile, Erik Johnson and Dylan Cozens both missed practice with upper-body injuries.
Saturday is a huge game for Buffalo, as on Friday, the Sabres trailed Tampa Bay and the Detroit Red Wings by seven points for seventh and eighth place in the Eastern Conference.
Buffalo has won 5-of-7 games, and allowed just one goal in their past three. However, they’ve not been able to make up any ground at all in the playoff race.
With the injuries on defense, Jacob Bryson is back with the team. Bryson played nine games after being sent down to the Rochester Americans, and had one assist. Before going down, he had played three games with the Sabres.
Bryson is 26-years-old and in his fourth professional season. He says playing regularly again was key in going down to Rochester.
"It was a good chance for me to play a lot of minutes, and take on a different role," said Bryson on Friday following practice. "There are a lot of good guys down there, and coach [Seth] Appert is good at what he does. I have nothing but good things to say about everyone down there."
He adds by playing every game, he got into a rhythm, which has been better on the mental side.
Bryson is a person who is always positive, and he tries to bring that to the dressing room. He admits this season has been hard, but he’s tried to stay positive.
"I didn’t play for about 20 games there, so that was tough. But going down, I looked at it in a positive aspect, and that's the feedback I got from up here. If you take it the right way, it’s going to help you, and that’s what I did," Bryson said. "I feel like it does, and it will help my game getting that confidence back and feeling the puck again. I feel like when I get back into a game in Buffalo, I’ll be more ready."
Granato has been impressed with the way Bryson has handled things, and he feels they now have a better player for it.
Bryson was paired with Connor Clifton in Friday’s practice.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen looks to be getting his fifth-straight start in goal against the Lightning. He’s working on a shutout streak of 157:55.
The Sabres beat the Lightning in overtime back in October. They aren’t catching this team at a good time, as Tampa Bay has won four-straight games and five-out-of-six.
Nikita Kucherov leads the NHL in scoring with 28 goals and 47 assists for 75 points. He’s second in assists and fourth in goals.
Victor Hedman is ninth in the NHL with 36 assists. Hedman’s 44 points is third amongst defensemen, while Rasmus Dahlin is seventh with 36 points.
Dahlin still leads all defensemen with 13 goals.
Goaltending has been a big problem for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy’s first game wasn’t until Nov. 24, and they decided to go with former Sabres netminder Jonas Johansson before that, and it didn’t work well.
Since coming back, Vasilevskiy has played 22-of-25 games. He’s 13-9-0 this season with a 2.86 goals-against average and an .899 save percentage. Tampa Bay is 25th in the NHL in team defense, allowing 3.38 goals per-game.
Buffalo has to stay out of the penalty box, as Tampa Bay has the NHL’s No. 1 power play, operating at 31.0%.
Join Brian Koziol on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. EST for pregame coverage on WGR when you’ll hear from Granato, Bryson and Skinner.
