Projected lineup and notes ahead of Buffalo's preseason opener

Jiri Kulich delivered a quote ahead of the Prospects Challenge that captured the attention of Seth Appert, his coach for the past two seasons in Rochester. The 20-year-old had been asked about his expectations for training camp under Sabres coach Lindy Ruff.

“It’s going to be like a little war,” Kulich said.

Kulich went on to score five goals in three games at the event, but it was his added strength and competitiveness that earned him praise from his coaches and general manager Kevyn Adams, the latter of whom referred to Kulich as the best player on the ice.

Appert, now an assistant coach on Ruff’s staff in Buffalo, thought back to Kulich’s quote ahead of the Sabres’ preseason opener against Pittsburgh on Saturday.

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“Just a good, mature quote from him, for a young player,” Appert said. “To have the years he’s had in Rochester and then to understand and take in that information, that Lindy’s training camp’s going to be a bit different and we need to raise collectively our compete and our work ethic and the standard of how we play. He showed in rookie camp that he was ready for that.

“He didn’t approach rookie camp with a skilled mindset, he approached rookie camp with a compete mindset. He was physical, he was hard on pucks, he went to the hard areas, and now he needs to do that up here. He needs to assert himself and play the same way he did in rookie camp in tonight’s game.”

Kulich will be part of a lineup featuring most of the Sabres’ NHL regulars against the Penguins. He skated Saturday morning on the right wing alongside Lukas Rousek and Peyton Krebs as well as on the right flank of the second power-play unit.

Pregame coverage on MSG begins at 6:30 p.m. with puck drop scheduled for 7. Find more information about tonight in our game preview.

Here’s more from the morning skate.

Tonight's projected lineup

The Sabres' roster for the game includes 18 skaters who spent the first two days of camp skating with the NHL practice group. The lone exception is Rousek, who played 15 games for Buffalo last season but opened camp on a prospect-heavy practice group.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is expected to play the full game in net.

Here's the full projected lineup based on Saturday's skate:

Notes from morning skate

1. The Sabres ran power-play drills during their morning skate, offering a first look at prospective units. Here’s how they looked minus Rasmus Dahlin, who is out with an injury.

2. Appert, who is coaching the power play this season, highlighted increased shot volume and winning loose pucks as areas of emphasis to break opposing penalty kills out of their structure.

“The only way you can get them out of structure is to have a shooting mindset,” Appert said. “If you can have a shooting mindset, they converge and collapse towards their net.

“Say [the puck] kicks off into the corner, they’re going to go pressure. Every penalty kill’s going to go pressure that loose puck in the corner. Well, if you can come up with that puck by increasing our puck battle wins, that’s going to be a massive piece of this.”

3. The second power-play unit includes two defensemen in Bowen Byram and Owen Power, which Appert described as a luxury given the team’s personnel on the back end.

“We have four defensemen, probably, that could easily be on NHL power plays when Ras is healthy,” Appert said. “And if you can run different units on different sides and things like that, it’s a little bit harder for penalty kills when they get out there.”

4. Ruff referred to Byram as the best player on the ice during Friday’s intrasquad scrimmage. The defenseman in in his first camp with the Sabres after being acquired from Colorado last March and has found similarities between Ruff’s system and the one he played with the Avalanche.

“I feel like it’s been a little easier for me, maybe,” he said. “I’m just a little bit more familiar and comfortable playing in that system, so it’s good for me.”

5. Byram was asked how defensemen are expected to play in Ruff’s system.

“I think he wants us to be active up the ice, and he’s made it pretty obvious that defending and playing hard in front of your net is not going to be optional,” he said.

6. The players who aren’t on the roster for the preseason opener took part in an intrasquad scrimmage on Saturday morning. That group included the forward line of Jordan Greenway, Ryan McLeod, and Jason Zucker along with goaltender Devon Levi.

Pregame interviews