After missing Saturday afternoon's matchup with the Columbus Blue Jackets with a lower-body injury, Buffalo Sabres defenseman Brandon Montour was back on the ice with his teammates for practice on Monday.
The 25-year-old took Friday's practice off for a maintenance day, and ended up taking the ice for the pregame warmup on Saturday. However, he ended up being a late scratch, which resulted in Lawrence Pilut being a late addition to the lineup in a 2-1 overtime win at KeyBank Center.
After a day off for the team on Sunday, Montour was feeling a little better as he took to the ice for Monday's session.
"I think it's something that's a little [bit of a] weird issue, but I think we're going to take it day-by-day here and see how we feel," Montour said after practice.
While we may never know what is ailing Montour, he is not sure whether or not that this injury will be a short-and-sweet recovery, or it will be something that will have to be managed for the rest of the season.
"Obviously [if it's] short-term, I want to get in this as quick as I can," Montour said. "Obviously I want to get into a game and feel the most comfortable as I can and to be able to contribute and play my best hockey."
Montour missed the start of the 2019-20 season after a hand injury forced him out of the first 14 games. Saturday was the first game Montour had missed since returning from his early season injury.
In 37 games played this season, Montour has three goals and 10 assists for 13 points, and has shown his potential of being a long-term solution for the Sabres on the blue line. His ability to move the puck in transition, his offensive instincts, and to plug him in to just about any role, even at forward, has his coaches liking what his future has in store in Buffalo.
"Brandon is one of the really good stories of the aggressive gapping game that we want to play, the pressure we want to put on people defensively all over the ice, and we do it when we do it well. Everybody in this room feels it when that's happening down there on the ice," Sabres head coach Ralph Krueger said of his young defenseman after practice. "Does it always lead to wins? No, but you can start to feel the Sabres hockey we want to play defensively. Offensively his mobility, his skating, his willingness to attack is exciting, but for us a coaches, it's not the part that the fans necessarily study is the game away from the puck. That's where his improvement has been amazing. He's got a total buy-in here to what we're doing. He's an unbelievably conditioned athlete, so he's not only athletic but his work that he does, his conditioning base is at a high level too. We've got a great future with Brandon."
As a group defensively, the team has been challenged throughout the season with a number of NHL defensemen that have been looking for that chance to get into the lineup. There have been a number of players on the blue line that have come in and out of the lineup, whether it is injury based or just one player's time to come out of the lineup for a game or two.
On Monday, the Sabres were without defenseman Rasmus Dahlin, who was given a maintenance day. Krueger said following practice that this is just minimal management of his body at this point of the season, and that he would be further evaluated on Tuesday.
With bodies coming in and out of the lineup, the group is constantly getting a new taste of playing with different pairings and switching things up.
"I think we're learning," Montour said. "It's a long season, you've got ups-and-downs. The consistency with playing fast, playing aggressively could be a little better, but that's something with a new team and younger guys and trying to get that experience to compete with the best teams every night I think is a big thing. It's one thing that we need to realize that there's 30 games left and every game is important. We need to find a way to manage that and play our best hockey.
"I think guys should be used to it by now. You never know what the lineup might be or who's not practicing or who's not playing, but I think you just play with what you've got. If you're short on a man or you're up a man, it is what it is. So I think guys do a pretty good job of managing that."
Also missing from practice on Monday was forward Johan Larsson, who was also given a maintenance day to manage his body at this stage of the season.
With Dahlin and Larsson missing from practice on Monday, practice saw a lot of the lines and defensive pairings rotating. The only two lines that were consistently working together on Monday were:
Vesey - Eichel - Reinhart
Sheary - Johansson - Frolik
The Sabres will meet Tuesday morning before their evening matchup with the Colorado Avalanche at KeyBank Center. Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. on WGR.
