BUFFALO – After a puck hit Sabres forward Jiri Kulich in the face during a practice late last month, forcing him to miss five games with a concussion, he joked he wondered if he had wronged someone.
“I was telling myself, ‘What I did (do) to someone with my luck?’” Kulich told the Times Herald prior to Friday’s 5-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets in KeyBank Center, his first game since going down Oct. 23.
Still, after sitting out most of last season battling a blood clot he eventually had surgically removed, the Czech can easily handle a short stint on the sideline.
“I know the worst was last year and that’s in the past,” said Kulich, who’s still sporting a gash above his lip where the puck hit him. “So getting hit by the puck is just a little thing in life that was only for a week.”
Kulich, who’s expected to play again Sunday afternoon when the Sabres host the Vegas Golden Knights, has played just eight games in the last 53 weeks.
“It’s been a hell of a year for him,” said Sabres winger Jason Zucker, Kulich’s close friend and linemate.
Kulich, 22, has already sat out seven games this season. Before suffering a concussion, he was a healthy scratch once and missed another contest when he felt ill and returned to Buffalo for testing.
In those trying times, Kulich, someone Zucker called a “mentally tough kid,” leans on his family and teammates for support
“Trying to spend some time with (my teammates), either at their houses or here,” Kulich said. “But, yeah, those guys helped me to go through it, was talking a lot with Jason. Yeah, as an older guy, he’s a different perspective for me, too.”
Zucker said being talkative with his teammates has helped the youngster through some difficult times.
“Him and I have a lot of conversations, and I know he does with his family and just people that are close to him,” he said. “He’s not afraid to kind of open up about what he’s going through and what he’s feeling. He lets people kind of be involved in his life and help him in any way that they can.”
As the Sabres caught fire last season and roared to a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Kulich would often be seen around the dressing room.
Teammates, Ruff said, wanted Kulich to know he was still part of the team and would recover from the clot.
“You could see he was so upset about not being able to be part of it when things were going so well that I think the group did a great job with trying to include him in everything,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said.
Kulich skated 13 minutes in Friday’s victory, including 2 minutes, 54 seconds on the power play. He pumped four shots on goal, tying him for the team lead with captain Rasmus Dahlin and winger Josh Doan.
Ruff said Kulich played “OK.”
“There’s time I thought (he) skated really well,” he said. “I think there’s opportunities to possess the puck and make better plays. But for a first game, I thought he did what we needed him (to do).”
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After backing up Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen against Columbus, the Sabres are expected to continue their goalie rotation and start Colten Ellis on Sunday afternoon.
After going 15 days between action, Ellis has recently found a groove, compiling a 2-1-0 record with a 2.69 goals-against average and .909 save percentage in three games since Oct. 27.
He began the streak with a 23-save shutout against the San Jose Sharks.
Since joining the Sabres last season, Ellis, 26, has shown he can sit for weeks at a time and look sharp when he plays.
“It’s just being hungry every day,” he said. “You come to the rink whether you’re playing on a consistent basis or not, just kind of having the same mindset.”
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Ruff said defenseman Matt Grzelcyk, who has been sidelined with a lower-body injury since playing opening night, is “kind of in a holding pattern.”
“He hasn’t really improved, and we’re just waiting for some results, whether some of the work he’s doing makes him better, or he’s going to have to find another avenue with his injury,” he said.
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When asked Saturday about his first season as head coach in 1997-98, Ruff said the Sabres locked into a style in December following some earlier struggles.
Incredibly, legendary goalie Dominik Hasek recorded six shutouts that month.
“He was a good coach,” Ruff said of Hasek. “He helped me coach. That’s what I remember, Dominik Hasek made me a good coach. Dom would like to hear that.”
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Based on line and defense combinations during Saturday’s practice, forward Ryan McLeod and defenseman Louis Crevier, both of whom were healthy scratches Friday, will likely sit out again today.