For the first time since back-to-back wins by Michael Houser over the New York Islanders in May, the Buffalo Sabres will be on the ice in KeyBank Center tonight.
The Sabres aren't going to trade Eichel until they can get the return they want, Harrington says. How can you break the logjam? It's time for Ex-Captain Jack to take a bold step: Go have your surgery.
The home exhibition opener against the Pittsburgh (Wilkes-Barre) Penguins is a 7 p.m. start streamed on Sabres.com and aired on WGR Radio. And you'll see a lot of familiar names.
This will be the exhibition opener for the top defense pair of Rasmus Dahlin and Henri Jokiharju, as well as veteran blueliner Colin Miller and returning forwards Jeff Skinner, Casey Mittelstadt, Victor Olofsson, Kyle Okposo and Drake Caggiula. The Sabres are 1-1 in the preseason after Thursday's 6-2 loss in Detroit.
"We were just talking about fresh guys in but we don't how fresh they'll be because they haven't played," coach Don Granato said after today's morning skate. "So that's an unknown. We do know they need games obviously to get in game shape and it will be nice to be at home I think. I think we can learn from the first two games. Last night, when we simplified things, the game was easier for us. When we complicated it, we had a lot more work to do."
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In the net: Veteran Craig Anderson will get his first chance of the preseason and start in goal tonight, with Granato saying he expects to use him for the first 40 minutes. Dustin Tokarski, who had a strong game in relief of Aaron Dell in Tuesday's shootout win in Columbus, will play the third period.
Playing behind a struggling Sabres team inside Little Caesars Arena, Luuukkonen allowed five goals on 31 shots in a 6-2 loss that illustrated how much work is ahead for coach Don Granato and his players before the season opens Oct. 14.
The lines: The Sabres' top six forwards tonight all figure to be on their opening night roster, as do four or five of the six defensemen. The lineup looks like this:
Skinner-Mittelstadt-Olofsson
Bjork-Girgensons-Hinostroza
Caggiula-MacInnis-Okposo
Pekar-Malone-Thompson
• • •
Dahlin-Jokiharju
Hagg-Miller
Schuldt-Pysyk
The other side: It should say "Wilkes-Barre/Scranton" and not Pittsburgh for what folks here will see tonight. Sidney Crosby (wrist surgery) and Evgeni Malkin (knee surgery) are out and several other notable names aren't making the trip. Casey DeSmith will be in goal but the Penguins will field a mostly minor-league lineup tonight.
Top NHLers on hand are forwards Kasperi Kapanen and Dominik Simon and defenseman Marcus Pettersson. Forward Anthony Angello is an Albany native who grew up outside Syracuse, played at Cornell and was a Sabres fan. He scored for the Penguins in his first career game here, a 5-2 win on March 11.
Weissbach piled up three points in the third period, including the tying goal with 54 seconds left. In a 4-1 hole through 42 minutes, the Sabres pulled out a 5-4 shootout victory at Nationwide Arena as Jack Quinn's filthy deke accounted for the only goal of the skills competition.
Reflections on the young players: J-J Peterka, Jack Quinn, Arttu Ruotsalainen and Linus Weissbach will sit out tonight and have some reflection to do after the first two games. Weissbach had a three-point night in Tuesday's shootout win at Columbus but was minus-4 in Detroit, as was Peterka. Ruotsalainen has scored in both games but was minus-3 last night.
"Now we take the video and say, 'Hey, this was really simple.' We try to show them how simple it was to correct," Granato said. "The mistakes are aggravating, there's no question. But the two really good components out there that are correctable, our effort and our intent was good.
"And that's what we're doing right now as coaches, making sure we have that standard effort. That's the foundation of what we're going to build from. So I'm more concerned with the effort. I've kept telling these guys, 'I'm not gonna tell you how you feel. But trust me, you don't have to feel good to perform.' And there's no excuses, so we're pushing and driving in that area."
