"Today was one of the longer practices that you'll see," Bylsma said. "We have practice on Tuesday and Wednesday, we have certain aspects of our game we want to get into with [those practices]. We'll see a heavy dose of special teams. Hopefully we'll have a closer complement to our full special teams those days."
Because of injuries, the Sabres still haven't had a chance to practice with their full special teams units. It looks, however, like they might be inching closer to health. Zach Bogosian (groin injury), Dmitry Kulikov (lower-body bruise) and Ryan O'Reilly (muscle spasms) did not practice, but they all skated on Sunday morning.
Bylsma said that Bogosian will return to practice on Tuesday and that he is hopeful for Kulikov to join him. O'Reilly's status is dependant to how his body reacts to skating after another day of rest.
Kyle Okposo has yet to skate with a bruised knee and his status for Thursday's opener is up in the air.
"Long-term there's not a concern," Bylsma said. "Just his progression back to the ice is not happening, it hasn't happened quickly. The first few days were quite sore, quite stiff and hard to walk and the last three days have almost exponentially gotten better and better and better for him."
Marcus Foligno was also absent from practice due to illness. Anders Nilsson, who hasn't dressed in the past three games due to illness, did practice and Bylsma said he seems to have gotten better.
