Rodrigues had never had to go to anything but the Sabres room for the first five years of his career, so, of course, Thursday morning was weird, “Once we got around this area, I didn’t really know where I was going, so it was a little bit weird. It’s going to definitely be different going into the away hallway to the ice and being on the other side of it.”
The forward has played four games with Pittsburgh and hasn’t had a point since being traded at the NHL Trade Deadline on Feb. 24.
Rodrigues had asked for a trade out of Buffalo and he was very happy it was Pittsburgh, “It was a pretty exciting time, and you’re going to a place that’s a storied franchise, that’s in the midst of pushing to get into the playoffs, so I was definitely excited.”
Rodrigues wanted out of Buffalo because of the way Ralph Krueger was using him, but he said it wasn’t all bad, “It’s the organization that gave me a chance and let me become an NHL player, and I’ll always be grateful for that.
“The city was nothing but nice to me. [My wife and I] had our first child here, and there are a lot of life-long memories that I’ll carry the rest of my life.”
Pittsburgh lost the first three games Rodrigues played in, but he noticed a difference in how slumps are handled, “They have such a calming presence, there’s no real panic in the room, there was no worry. It was just we’ve got to get ready for the next game and prepare the same way.”
Buffalo has beaten the Penguins both times in Pittsburgh. Rodrigues was with the Sabres, but didn’t play in either game. He said, “They’re going to come hard on their transition game and they clog up the neutral zone real well, so we need to avoid those neutral zone turnovers and make sure pucks get deep.”
Rodrigues was teammates with Jack Eichel both in Buffalo and at Boston University. This will be the first time they’ve ever played against each other and Rodrigues said, “It’ll be a cool experience being on the other side.”
Conor Sheary only played 133 games with Buffalo before being traded back to Pittsburgh. He wouldn’t come right out and say he asked to be moved, but he did want to be traded, “The UFA year was just lingering over my head. I think it was always an option to be traded throughout the whole year and it’s just the way the business works.”
Linus Ullmark might be ready to dress as the backup by the weekend, but it’ll be Jonas Johansson in net on Thursday. The rookie is 1-2-1 with a 2.68 goals-against average and a .899 save percentage.
Krueger isn’t making any lineup changes, which means Michael Frolik and Colin Miller are the healthy scratches.
The line of Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart and Victor Olofsson are all pointless in the last five games.
Buffalo can use a home game as they lost all four games on the road trip taking them out of any hope of the playoffs. The Sabres are 19-9-4 in this building and have won four in a row at home.
Olofsson - Eichel - Reinhart
Kahun - M. Johansson - Vesey
Skinner - Lazar - Simmonds
Girgensons - Larsson - Okposo
Join Schopp and the Bulldog for the pregame at 6:00 live from (716) Food and Sport when they’ll be joined by Krueger, Eichel, Rodrigues and Sheary.