Sabres top blueliner missed his first game this season with a lingering lower-body injury
Buffalo Sabres head coach Don Granato provided an update on the health of defenseman Rasmus Dahlin and goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen on Friday, before their second meeting of the season with the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.
"He feels better today and this is gonna be a 'how much better are you feeling each day' (situation). Granato said. "He played through soreness the other night and we're trying to manage it that way, until it until it resolves to the point he's not playing with that."
The 23-year-old blueliner, who leads the club in defensive scoring with 21 points (6 goals, 15 assists) sat for the first time in Boston on Thursday with a nagging lower-body injury and did not practice for the fourth straight day.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen did not travel with the club and did not take part in practice on Friday, and was ruled out by Granato to be in uniform as the starter or backup on Saturday.
In more encouraging news, injured forward Jack Quinn participated fully in practice and was not wearing a non-contact jersey for the first time. Granato indicated that Quinn has made a lot of progress in recovery since injuring his Achilles in late June, but that there is a lot of physical and some mental hurdles to overcome until he is ready to return.
When asked whether a stint in Rochester would be part of ramping Quinn back up to full speed, Granato said that the club was preparing the winger for a return to the NHL, but that an AHL conditioning stint is a resource that they could use.
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