Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) – Before I get into the nuts and bolts of Monday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers, it’s been awhile since the Buffalo Sabres have updated us on Jack Eichel.
“I don’t have an update on Jack,” interim head coach Don Granato said on Monday. “I spoke with him a couple of days ago and did not get into details with him because he is going through rehab. He said he felt good, he was feeling better.
“I don’t think or believe that it would be season ending, so we’re hopeful and we hope he’ll be back at some point.”
Jacob Bryson won’t play on Monday after his head accidentally ran into David Pastrnak’s leg on Saturday. Granato said that he’s day-to-day.
Now that the team is home, Granato got to hear more on Carter Hutton’s injury.
“It’s week-to-week and we expect him back,” Granato said. “We won’t know how he’s feeling with this kind of injury until next week, and then maybe we get him in practice.”
Rasmus Asplund will also miss his third-straight game due to injury.
“‘Aspy’ [Asplund] I think is more short-term than long-term.” Granato said. “He showed a lot of signs of progress right away. The initial couple of days were high pain, but then it went down very quick. I would expect we see him fairly soon at least in practice within the next few days.”
The Sabres hope to break a 17-game winless skid against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Buffalo played its best 40 minutes in over a month Saturday in Boston and took a 2-1 lead into the third period, but still lost 3-2.
Linus Ullmark returned from injury in that game and will play this one too. He’s 5-5-2 with a 2.49 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage.
Sam Reinhart’s power play goal on Saturday broke a 0-for-28 slump with the extra man. Buffalo has gone from first to 12th in the league at 23.3%.
The penalty kill has gone 5-for-5 in two of the last three games. The Sabres have gone from eighth to 18th in the NHL at 77.9%
It’s been 10 games since Eichel has been hurt. Kyle Okposo and Brandon Montour are the Sabres’ leading scorers in that time. Okposo has played seven games, scoring two goals and three assists for five points. Montour in 10 games has a goal and four assists for five points.
Buffalo is 1-4-0 against Philadelphia this season. In five games, Taylor Hall has five points. This is Ullmark’s first game this season against the Flyers.
For some reason, Granato shifted Dylan Cozens back to right wing for four periods, and only played him 12:48 on Saturday. I wondered if Granato saw some things in the rookie’s game he didn’t like, but the interim coach said it was actually his fault.
“When you finish that game and you don’t win, as a coach, one of the first things I looked at was just that, and thought I should’ve gotten him out on the ice a little bit more,” Granato said. “So it was nothing he did. That was on me and not on Dylan.”
Flyers goalie Carter Hart has been benched by Alain Vigneault and will not dress for Monday or Wednesday's games. Buffalo has been shut out by Hart, and they’ve chased him from the net twice.
Nemesis Brian Elliott gets the call in goal. This season, he’s 3-0-0 against the Sabres with a 0.92 goals-against average and a .967 save percentage. In his career, Elliott is 16-2-2 against Buffalo with a 1.67 goals-against average and a .943 save percentage.
In three games against Buffalo this season, Sean Couturier has two goals and three assists for five points.
Philadelphia has fallen out of the top-four in the East Division with only three more games left against the Sabres. The Flyers trail the fourth place Boston Bruins by three points, and Boston still has six games left against Buffalo. The third place Pittsburgh Penguins are 10 points in front of the Flyers, and still have four more games against Buffalo.
Monday’s lines:
Forwards:
Skinner – Lazar – Okposo
Olofsson – Cozens – Reinhart
Hall – Mittelstadt – Thompson
Rieder – Eakin – Sheahan (Fogarty)
Defense:
Dahlin – Jokiharju
Montour – Miller
Irwin – Ristolainen
Join Schopp and the Bulldog for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 6 p.m. ET when they’ll be joined by Granato, Jeff Skinner and Tage Thompson.
