Buffalo Sabres winger Kyle Okposo left practice Monday morning in KeyBank Center after tweaking his left ankle, and the team is awaiting word on the veteran's status for its two remaining games.
The Sabres opened practice missing injured goalie Craig Anderson and defenseman Mattias Samuelsson, center Cody Eakin (illness) and winger Vinnie Hinostroza (family matter). Okposo appeared to step on the puck while working a drill with defenseman Colin Miller and returned gingerly to the bench area. He tried another rep toward the other end of the ice but was not moving well and headed to the dressing room.
Only two games remain in a season that has introduced Buffalo's hockey fans to the true potential of the Sabres' young core. Every important player on the roster improved under coach Don Granato and his staff. And individual development is leading to team success.
Coach Don Granato said both Okposo and Anderson were being re-evaluated later Monday. Okposo, 34, has had a resurgent season with 21 goals and 24 assists in 74 games and hit the 20-goal mark for the first time in his six seasons with Buffalo. He had just two goals in 35 games for the Sabres last season.
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Prior to the practice mishap, Okposo was named as the Sabres' nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy. Voted on by members of the Buffalo chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, the Masterton honors perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. PHWA members then vote among the 32 chapter nominees for the winner of the award, which is presented during the NHL Awards Show in June during the Stanley Cup final.
Other chapter nominees include former Sabres captain Jack Eichel of Vegas, retiring Anaheim captain Ryan Getzlaf, 45-year-old defenseman Zdeno Chara of the New York Islanders, St. Louis winger Vladimir Tarasenko and San Jose defenseman Brent Burns.
Make or break for Vegas in Big D
Eichel assumed he was making his first trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season when he was traded by the Sabres to Vegas in November. So did pretty much the entire hockey world.
But after a stunning shootout loss to San Jose late Sunday night in T-Mobile Arena, the Golden Knights are on the verge of missing the postseason for the first time in their five-year history heading into a make-or-break game Tuesday night in Dallas.
Here's a rundown of what to keep your eye on until the schedule runs out Friday night.
Nashville leads the Western Conference wild-card standings with 94 points, Dallas has 93 and Vegas has 90. Each team has three games left. Vegas' games are all on the road, starting with the showdown vs. the Stars, and the Golden Knights probably need to win them all to have a chance. A regulation loss to the Stars on Tuesday will officially eliminate Vegas, and Dallas has a schedule advantage anyway as its final two games are against Arizona and Anaheim. Vegas, meanwhile, plays at Chicago and St. Louis.
The benefit to the Sabres, of course, is that they hold Vegas' first-round pick at the July draft in Montreal and it could land at No. 16 (the pick is top-10 protected and would slide to 2023 if Vegas is a winner in the May 10 draft lottery). When the trade was made, it was reasonable to think a long playoff run for the Golden Knights would leave the Sabres a pick in the high 20s or even low 30s.
Vegas lost Sunday's game, 5-4, as San Jose rookie Thomas Bordeleau – a college teammate of Owen Power at Michigan in just his fifth NHL game – scored the only goal in the shootout. But the contest was notable for Vegas blowing a 4-2 lead in the final three minutes of regulation, capped by Timo Meier's tying goal with 0.9 seconds left in regulation.
Eichel has 12 goals, nine assists and 21 points in 31 games for Vegas this season. But he has no points in the last four games, and did not have a shot on goal in regulation Sunday. He has five shots on goal combined over the last three games. Eichel played 23:12 Sunday with two shots on goal and a minus-2 rating. He also was one of three Vegas players stopped in the shootout by San Jose goalie James Reimer.
Arranging the schedule
The Sabres were slated to play Montreal on Tuesday night under the NHL's original schedule but that game was moved to February when the NHL pulled out of the Olympics and teams had time to spread out games and make up others that were postponed due to Covid issues. After being off Sunday, Granato has opted for another day off on Tuesday, since the next game is not until Thursday in Boston.
"I felt today the practice intensity and focus was great," Granato said. "Enthusiasm was great, energy was great. And so (Tuesday) we have off and I think our guys are hungry for the games and I think that prepares us best for those games. We've just played so much hockey. You have four days in between games, there's no way you can practice four days. I think that's tough on the psyche and everything else. And I think even three practices is too much with the number of games they've played."
