One group of Buffalo Sabres posted a strong effort in Sunday's exhibition opener, an overtime victory at Washington. Now comes what's expected to be an entirely different group getting its chance in the first home preseason game.
The Sabres aren't finalizing their lineup for Tuesday's game against the Philadelphia Flyers in KeyBank Center until their morning skate, but it's expected to be comprised mostly from the players who were on the ice Monday.
Coach Don Granato said after practice he expects veteran Craig Anderson to get at least part of the game in goal after Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen went the route in Washington.
"How long he'll play is another thing to assess," Granato said of Anderson, 41. "He is in a completely different spot with his experience. We communicate consistently with him. But we take a read, he can verbalize it and tell us how he feels. And he knows what he needs to get done to prepare (for the regular season)."
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Veteran forwards who skated Monday included Kyle Okposo, Jeff Skinner, Tage Thompson, Victor Olofsson, Casey Mittelstadt, Alex Tuch, Zemgus Girgensons and Anders Bjork. On defense, Rasmus Dahlin, Mattias Samuelsson, Henri Jokiharju, Ilya Lybushkin, Owen Power and Jacob Bryson were all on the ice Monday and several of them figure to be in the lineup.
Skinner and Thompson together
With so many players still in camp, the Sabres' forward lines and defense pairs don't stay together much during drills as players freely move in and out of them so every one gets enough reps.
But Granato made one point clear Monday when he said he can't see a scenario in which Skinner won't be at left wing beside Thompson on the club's top line. Thompson, who just signed a seven-year, $50 million extension that kicks in next year, is coming off a 38-goal season and Skinner leapfrogged from seven goals in 2020-21 to 33 last season.
"I can pretty comfortably say I see those guys staying together. There's chemistry there, but they work together," Granato said. "They strategize together in between games, after practices so they're really dialed in."
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"I feel like we're on the same page. And if we're not, we kind of figure it out and get on the same page," Skinner said. "It's been fun playing with him."
As to the other wing, it could be Alex Tuch in a reprise of last season's most used combination or it could be Victor Olofsson to give Tuch a chance alongside someone such as Dylan Cozens or Peyton Krebs.
Said Tuch: "I have chemistry with a lot of different guys and I think we have a lot of depth so it makes it easy to really just be able to whenever they want to shuffle up the lines, we can do it the same way."
The other side
The Flyers were off Monday after four days of mostly hard skating under new coach John Tortorella as well as Saturday's 2-1 win over Boston in their preseason opener. They are expected to announce their lineup Tuesday as well. The game will be streamed live on Sabres.com and broadcast on WGR Radio with Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray on the call.
Granato will then likely pivot to the Washington group and some young players for the bulk of the lineup in Wednesday night's game at Columbus.
