The Buffalo Sabres practiced for over an hour at KeyBank Center without four regulars participating. Head coach Lindy Ruff provided an update on the status of forwards Jordan Greenway and Jiri Kulich, and defensemen Bowen Byram and Mattias Samuelsson.
Greenway has not taken part in any camp workouts after he suffered an recurrence of the mid-body injury that he had surgically repaired over the summer, but he is progressing and the hope is that he will be able to start practicing next week. It is highly likely with that timetable that Greenway will start the season on injured reserve. Kulich tweaked a muscle during practice last week and according to Ruff will practice on Tuesday.
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Byram suffered “a bit of an injury” during the Sabres 5-2 victory over Detroit on Saturday and is day-to-day. Ruff said that the top pairing blueliner will not play against Pittsburgh on Wednesday, which necessitated a scrambling of the pairings at practice. Righty Michael Kesselring took Byram’s place on the top pairing with Rasmus Dahlin, and rookie Radim Mrtka skated with Owen Power.
The news was not positive regarding Samuelsson, who suffered an upper-body injury earlier in camp. Ruff said that the defenseman reaggravated the injury and has gone from day-to-day to week-to-week. The 25-year-old has struggled with injury issues throughout his career, and after spending the early portion of his career playing with Dahlin, is now slotted in on the bottom pairing. With Samuelsson unavailable, third-year pro Ryan Johnson appears to be ready to step into the lineup alongside Conor Timmins on the bottom pairing until Samuelsson returns.
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