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Sabres, Preds Dinged

December 2, 2018, 9:23 AM ET [14 Comments]
GARTH'S CORNER
NHL news by Garth • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Updated:


Phil Housley skated his Sabres in Nashville on Sunday afternoon.

The Sabres had been a relatively healthy group until this current three games road trip.

On Sunday, Marco Scandella, Jake McCabe, Jason Pominville, and Rasmus Ristolainen did not practice.







However, Conor Sheary, who missed the previous two games did practice with his teammates. Sheary is expected to play Monday.

McCabe missed Friday's game in Sunrise. Scandella and Sheary have missed the last three games.


After the skate, spoke with media and gave injury updates.


Pominville and Scandella were sent home to Buffalo for further evaluation. Pominville was drilled between the numbers by Panthers D Alec Petrovic on Friday night in Sunrise. Scandella has had difficulty since blocking a Geno Malkin clapper with his foot two weeks ago in Pittsburgh.

Pominville and Scandella will not play on Monday night in Nashville.






Housley said McCabe is day to day and that Ristolainen was given a maintenance day.


Here are Housley's trio sand duos from the Sunday skate:


Skinner-Eichel-Reinhart
Thompson-Mittelstadt-Okposo
Sheary-Rodrigues-Sobotka
Berglund-Larsson-Girgensons

Bogosian-Dahlin
Beaulieu-Nelson
Pilut-Hunwick


* Tennyson and Elie (extra forward) were the fourth D pair.

Naturally, when Ristolainen and McCabe return to the lineup at Monday's game day skate, Nelson and Hunwick will sit.

Based on what I saw from rookie Lawrence Pilut on Friday night in his first NHL game, I'm keeping the kid in the lineup in Nashville. It took Pilut two or three shifts to shake out the butterflies and to take command of his assignment. I graded out Pilut with a "B" for his first ever performance in the NHL. I'm intrigued to see more of him against the Nashville Predators on Monday night.



















The Buffalo Sabres have gotten just what the doctor ordered:

Rest and Recovery.

Eichel & Company soldiered through the brutal grind of 15 games in 30 nights in November without many serious injuries to their group and emerged a better, battle-tested team that is currently locked into third place in the NHL standings.


The Sabres ended November with an outstanding 11-3-1 record.


After Friday night's OT loss in Sunrise Florida to the Panthers, Buffalo chartered to Nashville for a two-day respite.


Wisely, the Sabres did not take the ice for practice in Smashville on Saturday, which was a an early Christmas present for a few of the Buffalo players who have been nursing minor ailments.

Defensemen Jake McCabe, Marco Scandella, and forward Conor Sheary. Also, Jason Pominville was injured in the third period on Friday night. Pominville didn't finish the game after getting run from behind by Panthers defenseman Alec Petrovic. The status of four Sabres players won't be known until later today when Phil Housley will update media.


The two days of rest and recovery in Nasvhille will serve the Sabres well as they play a brutal back-to-back-jack against the Predators on Monday and the hated Toronto Maple Leafs on home ice Tuesday night.


Third place in the NHL standings will be on the line when the Sabres will play the struggling Predators on Monday night.

The Preds beat the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night and had to do so with a patchwork lineup due to injuries to several of their best players. On Thursdy night, the Preds lost 3-0 to teh Arizona Coyotes. Saturday's win gave the Preds, 5-5 in their last 10 games, \ 37 points in the standings. The Buffalo Sabres also haave 37 points.







Buffalo's 10-game winning streak was halted after a 5-4 loss in Tampa on Thursday night. On Friday night, the Sabres gave up a third period lead and lost in overtime to the Florida Panthers.

The Sabres are now 0-1-1 after they re-invigorated their rabid fanbase with their 10-game winning spree.


The win came as the Predators have been for to play without several of their star player in Viktor Arvidsson, Kyle Turris and P.K. Subban and Filip Forsberg on injured reserve. To add insult to injury, Nick Bonino was also forced to sit out the win over the Blackhawks.

The Preds were forced to fill roster spots by calling up forwards Elie Tolvanen and Anthony Richard ifrom AHL Milwaukee.
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