BUFFALO – Instead of dressing defenseman Michael Kesselring for Tuesday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, Sabres coach Lindy Ruff gave the newcomer a chance to reset.
Having battled injuries all year, Kesselring hasn’t found much of a groove. Since training camp, he has dealt with a knee injury and a high ankle sprain he re-injured.
In his first 23 outings, he showcased glimpses of what made him a coveted return in the trade that sent JJ Peterka to the Utah Mammoth.
So Ruff scratched the 6-foot-5, 215-pound Kesselring on Tuesday and went over parts of his game with him.
“I spent some time with him about where I thought his game was at,” Ruff said prior to Thursday’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in KeyBank Center. “He’s been struggling with the injury part of it and coming back and another injury. Again, suffered the same injury, so really just felt just take a breath, take a game off, get him back in tonight. But get your head in the right place.”
Ruff believes Kesselring, 26, has sometimes tried to do too much or force things.
“Play well defensively and make a good first pass,” he said. “I think he’s really trying to push the game in a sense where up ice where probably not the greatest time to be going. But just trying to make stuff happen instead of just let it happen.”
Kesselring will return for Thursday’s game, the Sabres’ final outing before the Olympic break. To make room, they will scratch defenseman Zach Metsa.
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Ruff said it’s “kind of heartbreaking” the lower-body injury Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen suffered Jan. 27 will force him to miss the Olympics.
Luukkonen, 26, earned a spot last month on Team Finland for the Milano Cortina Games.
“You end up within a week or two of going, and you end up with an injury,” he said. “Nothing serious, but it’s going to hold him out of it.”
He has missed the last five games.
Prior to the game, the Sabres presented their Olympians, captain Rasmus Dahlin (Team Sweden) and center Tage Thompson (Team USA), their respective countries’ flags.
Dahlin also participated in a ceremonial faceoff with Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, a member of Team Canada.
Former Sabres captain Mike Ramsey, a member of 1980 US “Miracle On Ice” team, dropped the puck.
One thing us fans forget … is that pro athletes are humans, not machines, and they are all playing with pain.