Sabres goalie takes part in practice for the first time after being injured against Toronto in late January
The Buffalo Sabres skated for the second straight day at LECOM Harborcenter on Thursday, ramping up their on-ice workouts towards their return to action next Wednesday in Newark against the Devils. The club did not have winger Zach Benson on the ice, but center Josh Norris took part in practice without a non-contact jersey and the club had three goalies Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Alex Lyon, and Colten Ellis participating.
Luukkonen suffered a lower-body injury in the first period of a 7-4 victory over Toronto on January 27, which caused him to miss the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina after being selected by Team Finland.
"It's just one of those where you know that you tweaked something. It's hard to say in the moment how bad it is, but I knew for sure after the second goal (against the Leafs) that I tweaked something,” Luukkonen said. “It was really frustrating knowing when it happened, that there's possibility missing the Olympics.The couple days after were pretty miserable for me to kind of know that I'm gonna miss it."
Luukkonen was selected along with Nashville’s Juuse Saros and Vancouver’s Kevin Lankinen as Finland’s goaltending trio, but the injury occurring just over a week from the Olympic break ruled him out. The 26-year-old indicated that the two-plus week break has helped in the healing process and during the break he traveled back home and has been watching his countrymen in the tournament.
"It's getting to the point where it started to feel pretty normal, but there's that last push to get into game shape." Luukkonen said. "The silver lining of this whole unfortunate thing is that I've been able to take my time with it, and really focus on the rehab and taking my time with it and the little bit of time we still have before the games start."
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Injury issues have plagued Luukkonen since last summer, where he suffered a lower-body injury just before training camp and tweaked something after one period in a preseason game. After missing the first three weeks of the season, the big netminder and pretty much split duty with Lyon, going 11-7-2 in 21 games, but all three goalies have spent time on the injured list, making having three goalies on the roster an advantage.
"The first couple days when I kind of knew that (the Olympics were) not happening, it was kind of devastating to know that you can't make it. It's something that's been in the back of my mind for a long time," Luukkonen said. "We've been playing well as a team here. I was really confident that it would have been a great chance for me to be a part of the Olympic team. (Finland is) playing well right now, and I'm really happy for them, but (it would've been) really special to be part of that."
The Finns take on Team Canada on Friday in the medal round and could play the winner of USA - Slovakia if they pull the upset against the heavily favored Canadians.
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