Levi still day-to-day with a lower-body injury

The Buffalo Sabres take on the New York Islanders at the Key Bank Center on Saturday, but unlike last Saturday when the Isles were rested going into their home opener and had Vezina Trophy nominee Ilya Sorokin between the pipes, New York lost 5-4 in overtime to the New Jersey Devils at home with Sorokin in goal and will be going with veteran Semyon Varlamov in the second of back-to-back games.

The Sabres will have their own goaltending change on Saturday, as rookie Devon Levi will sit, and veteran backup Eric Comrie will make his first start of the season. Comrie, who Buffalo signed to a two-year, $3.6 million free agent contract in the summer of 2022, struggled with injury and inconsistency most of last season.

"I played well and then, unfortunately, I got hurt in early November and I (was out) until January, so that's hard to do.” Comrie said, “I felt when I was healthy, I played good hockey, so I just got to make sure I stick to that and stay confident."

Buffalo is hoping that Comrie will be able to bounce back from an off-season and put up similar numbers to what he did with Winnipeg (10-5-1, 2.58 GAA, .920 save %) backing up Connor Hellebuyck in 2021-22, where he did not play for long stretches because Hellebuyck played over 60 games and due to a COVID shutdown in Canada in December.

"His experience in this position being a backup to Hellebuyck, when you don't get a lot of games, where there's a lot of time in between games, and then (there’s) some pressure to win a game, because obviously, Hellebuyck played well......Comrie is very acclimated to this." Granato said.

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After missing practice on Friday, Levi took to the ice for an optional skate on Saturday. Granato indicated that the 21-year-old’s lower-body injury is something that he could play through, but that he saw the benefit of giving the young netminder a breather after playing the first four games.