BUFFALO – Sabres forward Sam Lafferty, who suffered a lower-body injury in Friday afternoon’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks, will be sidelined week to week, coach Lindy Ruff said.
“He’s doing OK, so it could be one those shorter things,” Ruff said following Monday’s practice in KeyBank Center.
Meanwhile, other injured Sabres are progressing.
Ruff said defenseman Mattias Samuelsson, who has missed the last eight games with a lower-body injury, started skating again Friday.
“Don’t have a timeline, but the fact that he’s back on the ice, he continues to show some progress,” Ruff said.
Ruff said winger Jordan Greenway, who has missed the last seven games with a mid-body injury, skated Monday morning.
“We’ll just see how he’s feeling after he gets a couple of the skill skates, or skates that initially get you going to see when or if we can get him back in practice,” he said.
Greenway recently underwent a procedure that wasn’t surgery. Ruff said they don’t know if it helped him.
“That’s why he’s back on the ice, just to see whether he feels better or something further will have to be dealt with,” he said.
Entering tonight’s game against old friend Casey Mittelstadt and the Colorado Avalanche, rookie Tyson Kozak is the Sabres’ only extra forward. He took reps Monday on the fourth line.
Kozak, who was recalled following Friday’s game, sat out Saturday’s 3-0 road loss to the New York Islanders.
Ruff said the fourth trio of center Peyton Krebs, Beck Malenstyn and Nicolas Aube-Kubel played well in Saturday’s loss. Kozak, 21, likely must wait to make his NHL debut.
“They were in on three or four opportunities,” Ruff said of the line. “I thought there puck play was good inside the game, and I think that’s where he fits on our team. So we’ll go through the first game, we’ll evaluate and see where he’s at.
“I know what he brings, the energy, and I think he’s the type of guy that helps lifts other player with just his infectious work ethic. So there’s always a chance, but we’ll evaluate that from game to game.”
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Mittelstadt, the eighth overall pick in 2017, will be facing the Sabres tonight for the first time since they traded him to Colorado on March 6 in exchange for defenseman Bowen Byram.
The rare one-for-one blockbuster deal has benefited both teams.
While Mittelstadt, 26, has struggled in the past few weeks, he has given the Avalanche another offensive-minded center.
He has compiled four goals, 14 points and a team-worst minus-15 rating in 25 games this season. He has mustered zero points in his last six games.
Meanwhile, Byram, 23 has established himself as a top-pair defender alongside captain Rasmus Dahlin. Byram has registered four goals, 14 points and a plus-8 rating in 24 contests this season.
Ruff said Byram, the fourth overall pick in 2019, has “got his game in a good place.”
“I think sometimes there is, ‘I want to show them even more,’” he said of Byram facing his old team. “I think just play your game, believe in how you’re playing and don’t overcook it. And with what he’s brought from where he started … until how he’s playing now, he’s been a big piece in our back end.”