Sabres will balance experience and game reps in evaluating taxi squad

Training camp is winding down and the Buffalo Sabres are continuing to gear up for the home opener on Thursday.
Following the second Blue & Gold Scrimmage on Saturday, the team was back on the ice Sunday morning at KeyBank Center.
With Kyle Okposo, Curtis Lazar and Rasmus Ristolainen given maintenance days, here's how the Sabres lined up on Sunday:

4 Taylor Hall - 9 Jack Eichel - 72 Tage Thompson
68 Victor Olofsson - 12 Eric Staal - 23 Sam Reinhart
13 Tobias Rieder - 20 Cody Eakin - 42 Dylan Cozens
53 Jeff Skinner - 37 Casey Mittelstadt - 38 Riley Sheahan
74 Rasmus Asplund - 22 Jack Quinn
26 Rasmus Dahlin - 62 Brandon Montour
19 Jake McCabe - 10 Henri Jokiharju
44 Matt Irwin - 33 Colin Miller
78 Jacob Bryson - 3 Will Borgen
35 Linus Ullmark
40 Carter Hutton
34 Jonas Johansson

Sabres coach Ralph Krueger has said that each day could see a few different players added to the mix of 20 core players depending on the needs of the team on that particular day.
We saw that on Sunday with Dylan Cozens, Jack Quinn and Jacob Bryson joining the veteran Gold group, and Arttu Ruotsalainen and Brandon Davidson skating at LECOM Harborcenter with the Blue group, consisting of players likely headed for Rochester Americans training camp this week.
Each NHL team can carry a taxi squad consisting of 4 to 6 players this season, in part to alleviate the stress of travel and testing protocols if an emergency callup needs to be made. Buffalo will hope to balance getting younger players acclimated to the NHL with consistent playing time in formulating its taxi squad.

"First and foremost will be to find that proper mix on a player between exposing him to the NHL or a practice like today for Jack Quinn and Dylan Cozens was outstanding," Krueger said. "But also we have to make sure they're playing hockey games so getting that right is one of the extra challenges we have this season."
Krueger emphasized that they will be integrating potential members of the taxi squad with that group led by Amerks coach Seth Appert. Rochester's first game will likely not be until at least February 5.
"Our geographical advantage to having Rochester so close is we could have a player who's been tested properly in the morning on the NHL protocols and he could play for us in the evening," Krueger said.
"Being in Rochester doesn't mean a player can't play and [being on] the taxi squad doesn't guarantee you that you're going to play."
Buffalo will be off tomorrow and will return to only a pair of practice days starting Tuesday before the season-opening set against Washington later this week.

More special teams work

The Sabres spent the second half of their practice on Sunday on special teams:
Power-Play Unit 1: Reinhart - Eichel - Hall - Olofsson - Dahlin
Power-Play Unit 2: Skinner - Staal - Thompson - Cozens - Miller
Olofsson scored 11 of his 20 goals last season on the man advantage.
"It's nice to get a few reps in here before the season starts," Olofsson said. "I think it looks and feels really good, especially with a player like Taylor Hall coming in. He adds more depth and more options into our power play."
Eakin, Rieder, Sheahan, Asplund and Mittelstadt all took reps at forward on the penalty kill while McCabe, Montour, Irwin, Jokiharju, Bryson and Borgen rotated in on defense.