Rasmus Dahlin did not practice with the Sabres on Monday but has not been ruled out for the team's home game against the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday night, coach Don Granato said.
Dahlin is considered day to day with an upper-body injury. He did not play in the Sabres' 5-3 loss in Tampa on Saturday, his first missed game this season.
Dahlin (upper body) misses practice, not ruled out for Tuesday
Notes from Monday's practice at KeyBank Center
© Steph Chambers/Getty Images
The 22-year-old leads the Sabres and ranks fifth in the NHL with an average ice time of 25:54. He ranks second among league defensemen in goals (7) and points (15) and is tied for fourth with a plus-10 rating.
Owen Power (28:14) and Jacob Bryson (26:15) set career highs in ice time against the Lightning in Dahlin's absence. Ilya Lyubushkin (22:14) and Kale Clague (21:14) also exceeded 20 minutes.
The Sabres are also without Mattias Samuelsson (lower body) and Henri Jokiharju (facial fracture), the latter of whom resumed skating on his own last week but has not practiced with the team. Lyubushkin missed four games with a lower-body injury before returning in Tampa.
"I think our defensive guys have handled it really well," Granato said. "I was excited when we signed some of these guys that would be considered depth players, players that when we ran into injury situations could move in and adapt to the style of play we wanted to play.
"They've had to do that way faster than we would have liked, so they're thrown right into the fire four or five games into the year. It was not something you could predict. Very not typical, but they've done a great job. They play as a unit very well."
Here are more notes from Monday's practice at KeyBank Center, with an eye on the defense.
1.Here's how the Sabres lined up with Dahlin absent:
| November 7 |
| --- |
| LW | C | RW |
| 77 JJ Peterka | 72 Tage Thompson | 37 Casey Mittelstadt |
| 53 Jeff Skinner | 24 Dylan Cozens | 89 Alex Tuch |
| 74 Rasmus Asplund | 19 Peyton Krebs | 71 Victor Olofsson |
| 22 Jack Quinn | 28 Zemgus Girgensons | 21 Kyle Okposo |
| | | 19 Vinnie Hinostroza |
| LD | RD | G |
| 38 Kale Clague | 25 Owen Power | 41 Craig Anderson |
| 78 Jacob Bryson | 46 Ilya Lyubushkin | 31 Eric Comrie |
| 20 Lawrence Pilut | 45 Casey Fitzgerald | |
| 4 Jeremy Davies | | |
2. Power leads NHL rookies with an average ice time of 23:09 - over two full minutes more than Montreal defenseman Kaiden Guhle, who ranks second at 20:56.
Power is also among the NHL's rookie leaders in assists (7, T-1st), points (7, T-2nd) and plus/minus (plus-4, T-4th) - all of which he's accomplishing at age 19.
"You can say he's a 19-year-old player, or 19-year-old kid, he is, but it's how good is he and how effective is he?" Granato said. "How intelligent is he? How skilled is he? You look at those traits it's not hard to see why he can play 28 minutes. You sort of throw the age to the side because the age is not a factor."
Video: AFTER PRACTICE: Granato
3. Bryson stepped into a power-play role (Power has the other) with Dahlin out, but also ranked second to Power in even-strength ice time against the Lightning.
Granato attributed Bryson's ability to handle the increased minutes to his growth mindset and the time he's put studying how to kill plays effectively in the defensive zone.
"Brys kills plays with his quickness and his plays and his mobility and he's learned how to do that to a greater level of efficiency, and we see that," Granato said. "His transition game, I think, is still evolving. His offensive game is still evolving and has a long way to go based on his potential. But it's pretty effective as it is right now."
4.Clague was one of three defensemen who joined the Sabres on one-year contracts during the opening day of free agency. He started the season in Rochester, made his Buffalo debut against Chicago on October 29, and in his fifth game crossed the 20-minute threshold for the first time with the Sabres.
Shot attempts were 29-11 in favor of the Sabres when Clague was on the ice at 5-on-5 against the Lightning.
"Kale has really made remarkable strides game by game in the last few games," Granato said, crediting the time Clague has spent in practicing and reviewing video with assistant coach Marty Wilford and development coach Dan Girardi.
"Her was able to take his skill set that he already had, his confidence that he already had playing in the NHL, and make improvements really fast. That's what we've seen. He's been impressive for me. I thought his best game was the other night in Tampa."
5.The Sabres unveiled their black and red alternate jerseys on Monday. We asked players for their reactions:
Video: BLACK & RED REACTION
