The Buffalo Sabres used both rostered goaltenders in a tough loss to the Montreal Canadiens earlier today. After the game, Bill Hoppe of the Buffalo Times-Herald passed a note from head coach Lindy Ruff indicating Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen suffered an ’ailment’ in yesterday’s practice before Luukkonen’s game descended further.
The injury concern didn’t end there for Buffalo as the team announced Tage Thompson and Mattias Samuelsson had left the game due to upper-body injuries. Samuelsson, whom the team had made a healthy scratch for the last three games, only managed 6:49 of today’s contest.
No further updates were made regarding the status of the injured players but the Sabres are again heading in a negative direction. Despite making a head coaching change and overhauling the bottom-six forward group this past offseason, Buffalo has a 7-8-1 record through 16 games and has given up the second-most goals of any team in the Atlantic Division.
Other Atlantic Notes:
- According to David Alter of The Hockey News, it’s trending toward a fourth-straight missed game for Auston Matthews. The franchise icon hasn’t missed this many games in a row since the 2022-23 NHL season and the Toronto Maple Leafs hope it doesn’t extend further. To add insult to injury, Alter further added that forward Calle Jarnkrok experienced a setback in his recovery from a sports hernia and he’s now headed to New York to see a specialist. Jarnkrok hasn’t skated put together a full season since the 2022-23 campaign and it appears this year may be more of the same.
- Nearly 250 miles northeast in Ottawa, the Senators are experiencing better luck on the injury front of late. Shane Pinto, who hasn’t played since October 22nd after scoring three points in his first six contests, could be an option for the team tomorrow night (X Link). If Pinto can’t go, the team announced the call-up of Zack Ostapchuk from their AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators, to fill out the rest of their forward core.
I keep wanting to believe in UPL and the Sabres, but they seem to give up the first goal in every game and usually pretty early. They have to make it more difficult to get to the front of the net, too.
Clifton is the only one on the D that hits. Owen Power has 7 hits in 16 GP. That’s abysmal for a guy that is 6’6 and 220+
@PoisonedPens — Those numbers for Power almost like a typo, don’t they? Plus, there’s the 5 takeaways to 15 giveaways. About the only thing he can hang his hat on is he’s tied for the team lead in blocked shots. His stats and style of play seem eerily similar to one Dougie Hamilton to me.
Hamilton is a good comp! Still not thinking he’s ever going to be Chris Pronger, which is what they’re paying him to become.