Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) - The Buffalo Sabres were without Josh Norris at Friday’s practice before they left for Boston. Norris couldn’t finish Thursday’s game after he went straight to the ice taking a faceoff. Ruff said he was still being evaluated, but he won’t play in Boston. Last year Norris suffered an oblique injury. This time Ruff said,
“It is a brand new injury. It’s similar to the last one, but brand new.”
As far as Norris himself, Ruff hasn’t spoken with him, but did say,
“I know he’s not dealing with it very good and he’s pretty disappointed with where he’s at with this injury.”
Ruff said Zach Benson was going to be released from the hospital on Friday and he anticipates having him back for Wednesday’s game. Owen Power is feeling better, but didn’t practice. Ruff didn’t rule him out for Saturday’s game.
In practice Jiri Kulich centered Tage Thompson and Jason Zucker which left Ryan McLeod between Alex Tuch and Jack Quinn. Buffalo currently has Norris, Benson, Power, Michael Kesselring, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Jordan Greenway out with injuries. Ruff said they stil have to win hockey games,
“We’re dealing with a little bit of adversity right now and we’ve got to get through it and we’ve got to win hockey games.
“Maybe this is just a test for us right off the bat to see how strong we can be and we’ll have to find ways to win. I think we played well enough defensively we just need to get bigger and stronger around the other team’s net.”
Friday’s lines:
Zucker - Kulich - Thompson
Quinn - McLeod - Tuch
Doan - Krebs - Danforth
Geertsen - Kozak - Malenstyn
DEFENSE:
Byram - Dahlin
Samuelsson - Timmins
Johnson - Byram