Sharpen Up: April 24, 2023 | Amerks look to rally from 2-0 series deficit

The Rochester Americans will be fighting for their playoff lives on Friday when they host the Syracuse Crunch for Game 3 of their North Division Semifinal matchup.
Rochester is down 2-0 in the best-of-five series.
We'll take a look at that plus comments from Sabres management in this week's edition of Sharpen Up.
Here's what you need to know.

Last week's big story

Kevyn Adams and Don Granato met with the media following their exit interviews with the players.

They discussed the impact of veterans Kyle Okposo and Zemgus Girgensons, who are set to become unrestricted free agents, on the young core, as well as potential contract extensions for Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power, and their team-building philosophy following a 91-point season.
Adams said now isn't the time to deviate from the plan and make a signing that could have a positive impact in the short term, but negative down the road.

"You know you have to make hard decisions when there's certain players that you don't necessarily want to move them, but we feel like we have to create a spot here because this player is now ready," Adams said. "We want to be able to get in the playoffs year after year after year, and have sustainable success that helps us compete."
Read our full recap of their press conferences here.

The week ahead

The Amerks find themselves facing elimination this weekend after losing a pair of road games to open the series.

Rochester fell 3-2 in overtime on Friday with goals coming from Linus Weissbach and Josh Passolt. Malcolm Subban made 37 saves.
On Saturday, the Crunch jumped out to an early lead en route to a 3-0 victory. Subban stopped 29 of 31 shots.

Stick with Amerks.com all week for the latest news and updates.

What else to watch for

The NHL Draft Lottery will take place on May 8 at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN, Sportsnet and TVA Sports. The Sabres have the 13th best odds (2.0 percent) of winning the first lottery draw, but can only move up 10 spots.
Anaheim has the best shot at winning the first-overall pick at 18.5 percent, followed by Columbus (13.5 percent) and Chicago (11.5 percent).

The NHL modified the rules for the lottery in March 2021. You can read them in full here.
Buffalo is set to select once in the first round of the 2023 NHL Draft, which will be held on June 28 in Nashville. On Tuesday, NHL Central Scouting Services released their final rankings for North American-based and international-based skaters, with Connor Bedard and Leo Carlsson topping their respective lists.
We'll also be keeping tabs on the Sabres players who have committed to playing at the 2023 IIHF World Championship, which will take place in Latvia and Finland starting May 12.
Alex Tuch, Devon Levi, Jack Quinn and JJ Peterka are among the Sabres who are set to participate.