The Buffalo Sabres have lost defenseman Zach Bogosian for at least a few weeks after he sustained a sprained knee during the first period of the last game against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday.
Head coach Dan Bylsma made the announcement during his pre-game comments today as Buffalo prepared to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs this evening.
“It’s a knee injury, MCL, and it’s more between a one and a two grade MCL sprain. It’s weeks at this point.
“There was some [discouragement] at the beginning of the year with an injury before you drop the first puck (Eichel) dealing with an injury to a good player on your team.
“You deal with the injuries. I think the injury in-game to Zach was something we had to deal with a little bit more going down to five [defensemen] on the road. In-game there’s an adjustment because of going down to five [defensemen], but I think we’re a good enough team and a strong enough team to have the next guy step in there and still do the job.”
Bogosian had been logging 18:59 per game including penalty kill time in the nine games the Sabres have played this season, with no points.
Casey Nelson is expected to slot in for Bogosian, paired up with Dmitry Kulikov.
Buffalo are already missing center Jack Eichel (high ankle sprain), Evander Kane (broken ribs), Nicolas Deslauriers (knee), and Hudson Fasching (groin).