Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – Owen Power will play the first NHL preseason game of his career on Tuesday, as the Buffalo Sabres host the Philadelphia Flyers.
Power will be back playing with Henri Jokiharju, while Mattias Samuelsson is, once again, with Rasmus Dahlin. Lawrence Pilut, who had two assists Sunday, will play in his second preseason game paired with Ilya Lyubushkin.
The lines are all over the place, but head coach Don Granato says it's important to work on the pairs now.
“We’ve asked a lot of guys to forgo familiarity and ease through training camp and partner up with younger players," said Granato on Tuesday. "But today in the game, specifically on D, these are the guys going back for pucks and these are situations where you can run pretty hard. So the familiarity there is important to me.
“I want to make sure they’re in a good spot, that there is some continuity. You retrieve pucks, you break out of your zone and there’s the potential for physical harm. So that’s an area that I don’t want to mess around with.”
During the Sabres' scrimmage on Saturday, the best line on the ice was Matt Savoie centering Casey Mittelstadt and Kyle Okposo. The 18-year-old is getting a second chance with the two veterans on Tuesday.
Granato says both the veteran wingers enjoyed playing with the 2022 first-round pick.
“When you put young guys with experienced players, it’s hard on older players, but Savoie has a really good feel of situational awareness," he said. "In speaking with the two he’s with, they enjoyed playing with him for those reasons. That allows us to make that decision to keep them together and put them from an intrasquad game into a preseason game as a unit. So the two older guys are excited that he’s there for what he has done.”
Mittelstadt has been paying attention to the young players, especially through the Sabres Prospects Challenge.
“I played with Savoie in that scrimmage and he’s a great player," Mittelstadt said on Monday. "I felt like we made some good plays together and we had 'Okie' on the other side, so it seemed like a good fit. He made a ton of good plays and you can see the way he makes plays. The thing that I like the most about it is he and many of the younger players think the game at such a high level and can make plays anywhere on the ice.”
Granato said Craig Anderson will start in goal, and they haven’t decided yet how long he’ll play. The other lines are:
Cederqvist – Girgensons – Rosen
Skinner – Thompson – Weissbach
Rousek – Biro – Tuch
The second unit skated later and returning on a non-contact basis were Josh Bloom and Sean Malone. Bloom got hurt in the first game of the Sabres Prospects Challenge.
Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray will have all the play-by-play action starting at 7 p.m. ET on WGR Sports Radio 550.
***Photo: Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres)
