BUFFALO – Having joined the Sabres as a key piece in an offseason trade, defenseman Michael Kesselring wasn’t about to let an injury derail his first training camp here.
Besides, Kesselring, 25, figured he was only battling a minor ailment.
“I didn’t think it was bad as it got to,” he said this morning after skating with his teammates for the first time since Oct. 1. “I didn’t think it was going to get that point, but I definitely didn’t want to miss new systems and everything.
“I know I was a big acquisition this summer and stuff like that, and I really feel this is a year I can prove myself. But it just got to the point where I was going to hurt myself more.”
During his third preseason outing, the undisclosed injury became too much for Kesselring to handle.
“So (I) kind decided to just talk about it, figure it out, and now I feel like I’m in a good spot and better than I was then,” he said in KeyBank Center.
Kesselring, who joined the Sabres on June 26 in the deal that sent winger JJ Peterka to the Utah Mammoth, hopes he can play next week.
“I feel really good now,” he said. “It’s just nagging me a little bit still, so just a little longer. But I’m getting pretty close.”
Still, he wants to be cautious.
“We’re going to take our time and make sure I’m fully ready to go,” he said. “I don’t want to be dealing with it all year.”
Kesselring, a right-shot defender the Sabres want to pair alongside Owen Power, said he had never missed any games because of injury before this month.
“So new experience for me,” he said. “I had surgery the one summer on my hand, but it was easy. It was a month rehab.”
In other news, Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said winger Jason Zucker, who left Wednesday’s 4-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings with an upper-body injury, will likely play tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Defenseman Jacob Bryson, who suffered a concussion last Saturday, also joined his teammates this morning.
Update: The Sabres this afternoon assigned defenseman Radim Mrtka, the ninth overall pick this year, from the Amerks to his junior team, the Western Hockey League’s Seattle Thunderbirds.
Mrtka, 18, compiled one assist and seven penalty minutes in four games for the Amerks.
“He’s done a good job,” Amerks coach Mike Leone told the Times Herald on Tuesday. “He practices really hard. He’s trying to learn. He’s been great to have around really coachable kid.
“So, yeah, it’s been good. Has it been perfect? No. But that’s a part of being a really young defenseman in pro hockey.”