Fourth liner will miss "some time" per Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff
Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff spoke to the media in Toronto prior to the second of their back-to-back home-and-home with the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday afternoon, and provided an update on forward Tyson Kozak, who left the game in the first period of the 5-3 win on Friday.
Ruff indicated that the fourth-liner is going to miss some time, and that he is still undergoing testing, but the injury necessitated the recall of forward Josh Dunne from Rochester. Dunne or Mason Geersten will take Kozak’s place on the fourth line for the Sabres, while the Leafs have their own lineup questions for the rematch. William Nylander was injured in the third period on a cross-check from Jason Zucker and according to Leafs coach Craig Berube will be a game time decision.
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Morgan Rielly is expected to return for the Leafs, who will be going with backup Cayden Primeau on Saturday. Ruff did not clarify who will start in the second of back-to-back after Alex Lyon started in the win at KeyBank Center. but based on the pre-game skate, it appear that Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who played in a conditioning stint in Rochester on Wednesday and was Lyon’s backup on Friday, will be making his first start of the season.
“We’ve got three goalies, we are going to layout a plan for the next three games.” Ruff said on Friday. “It is good problem. We've got a young guy that stepped in and played a good game for us, and Lyon has played well. I think the question is 'will UPL stay healthy?' We can't answer that. We've gotta stay in a place where we're protecting ourselves."
In other news, the Sabres as expected sent 2025 first round pick Radim Mrtka back to the Seattle Thunderbirds. Buffalo surprisingly sent the 18-year-old defenseman to the AHL Rochester Americans earlier this month, and the young blueliner had an assist and seven penalty minutes in four games with the Amerks.
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