BUFFALO – Sabres rookie Noah Ostlund will be sidelined “a period of time” after suffering a lower-body injury in Tuesday’s 2-1 overtime playoff loss to the Boston Bruins, coach Lindy Ruff.
“The news wasn’t good, don’t exactly know how much (time),” Ruff said this morning in KeyBank Center.
With Ostlund sidelined, center Josh Norris, who has missed the last three games, will likely move into the lineup for Game 6 of the first-round playoff series Friday in Boston. The Sabres lead the best-of-seven series 3-2.
“He’s ready to go,” Ruff said.
Norris, 26, sat out two games with an undisclosed injury but was available to play Tuesday.
Ostlund, 22, left 11:00 minutes into the game after getting tangled with Casey Mittelstadt along the boards. After going to the locker room, the center came out during a break later in the period, tested his injury and departed again.
The Swede has enjoyed a terrific campaign, emerging as one of the Sabres’ biggest surprises after beginning the campaign with the Rochester Americans. His two-way play and hockey smarts helped him secure regular duty in Buffalo.
He registered 11 goals, 27 points and a plus-11 rating in 60 regular-season games.
Ostlund, who missed the first two games of the series with an upper-body injury, made an immediate impact in Game 3, scoring a goal and creating another one.
Ruff said the Sabres could slide Norris into Ostlund’s spot between Zach Benson and Josh Doan or move things around.
“If you look at where our lines have been on the five-on-five play, all the lines have had great opportunities,” Ruff said. “Some lines have taken advantage of it, some haven’t, and there’s no hesitation with maybe flipping a piece around here or there.”