With the season winding down, the Buffalo Sabres injury list is mercifully getting shorter thanks to the recent return of Chris Stewart, Torrey Mitchell, Marcus Foligno, Zenon Konopka, and tonight, Drew Stafford. However, a few nuggets came out of yesterday’s practice regarding the fates of some other injured players and injury call-ups.
- Tyler Myers is done for the season. Myers was injured on March 25 after having a collision with the goal post, but Ted Nolan would prefer him to rest now rather than rehab for a few weeks after rushing back from injury. Nolan is a big believer in summer training setting up success for next season, so this isn’t much of a surprise. Said the coach – “We’re going on the road for two games and we come back for one and he hasn’t stepped on the ice for a week so, I’m a betting man, he’s not going to see any more game action until next season.”
- Matt Hackett will get the final three starts of the season. With Enroth, Lieuwen, and Neuvirth all on the shelf, the former Amerks starter will be the de-facto starter in Buffalo the rest of the way. Hackett will try to improve on his 1-4-1 record and his 3.20 GAA to go along with a .909 save percentage.
- Andrey Makarov will back up Hackett tonight, but the Sabres are planning on sending him back to Rochester for the Amerks games this weekend and finding another backup in Buffalo for the rest of the season.
- In case you missed it in our links this morning, Johan Larsson and Nicolas Deslauriers have been sent back to Rochester. Should Henrik Tallinder recover in time, Mark Pysyk would be the defenseman who gets sent down rather than Rasmus Ristolainen.