{"id":355732,"date":"2025-12-18T08:54:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T08:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/355732\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T08:54:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T08:54:15","slug":"snapshots-sabres-tkachuk-hagel-lucic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/355732\/","title":{"rendered":"Snapshots, Sabres, Tkachuk, Hagel, Lucic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sabres defenseman Michael Kesselring<\/a> is expected to return on Thursday against Philadelphia after missing the last 14 games with a lower-body injury, reports Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald<\/a>.\u00a0 A key part of the JJ Peterka<\/a> trade over the offseason, the 25-year-old has been limited to just nine appearances so far this season after also sustaining a knee injury in the preseason.\u00a0 It wouldn\u2019t be surprising to see him get eased back in but he\u2019ll likely get a chance to take on a bigger role after the holiday break.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, among other injured Sabres, winger Jason Zucker<\/a> has missed the last three games with a lower-body injury and is hoping to return after the break.\u00a0 Forward Justin Danforth<\/a> has missed 28 games with what\u2019s believed to be a broken kneecap but head coach Lindy Ruff says he\u2019s doing okay now.\u00a0 Lastly, goaltender Colten Ellis<\/a> (concussion protocol) is expected to be reevaluated on Friday after missing the last two games.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere around the hockey world:<\/p>\n

While Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk<\/a> has been skating on his own recently, he has yet to join the team for practice. As a result, GM Bill Zito told NHL.com\u2019s Nick Cotsonika<\/a> that they don\u2019t know if Tkachuk will be available for the Winter Classic in a little more than two weeks.\u00a0 The 28-year-old had surgery to repair a torn adductor muscle and a sports hernia back in August and has yet to play this season.\u00a0 He\u2019s averaged more than a point per game in four straight years and whenever he comes back \u2013 be it for the outdoor game or later on \u2013 he\u2019ll be a huge boost to a Florida team that sits around the middle of the pack in the East.
\nLightning winger Brandon Hagel<\/a> is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury and hasn\u2019t been ruled out of Thursday\u2019s game against Los Angeles, relays Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link<\/a>). Hagel was injured on a hit from Seth Jones<\/a> on Monday, resulting in him leaving the game.\u00a0 He has been a key contributor for Tampa Bay this season, notching 18 goals and 13 assists in 32 games.
\nVeteran winger Milan Lucic<\/a> has decided not to hang up his skates. Released from an AHL tryout with Springfield late last month, he has found his next team as the Fife Flyers of the EIHL announced<\/a> that they\u2019ve signed the 37-year-old for the remainder of the season.\u00a0 Lucic has only played in nine games since the 2022-23 campaign ended so it\u2019s far from a guarantee that he\u2019ll be able to be an impactful player as he looks to continue his career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sabres defenseman Michael Kesselring is expected to return on Thursday against Philadelphia after missing the last 14 games…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,54986,6581,194922,41856,3274,3899,132682,194923,35871,168643,112912,575,31034,85,4788],"class_list":["post-355732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brandon-hagel","tag-buffalo-sabres","tag-colten-ellis","tag-eihl","tag-florida-panthers","tag-injury","tag-jason-zucker","tag-justin-danforth","tag-matthew-tkachuk","tag-michael-kesselring","tag-milan-lucic","tag-nhl","tag-snapshots","tag-sports","tag-tampa-bay-lightning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}