Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) – During Monday\u2019s morning skate both Josh Norris and Jason Zucker joined their teammates for the first time. Norris got hurt on opening night trying to throw a body check and Zucker has been sick since Nov. 2 with a severe illness. As far as Zucker goes Ruff said the winger will have to put some weight on,<\/p>\n
\u201cYes for sure, whatever it was it took its toll and coming back you\u2019ve got to be a little careful too because you\u2019ve lost that much weight you\u2019re susceptible to further injury if you\u2019re not close to where you need to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the soonest we can see him is this coming weekend. It\u2019s the first time they\u2019ve been on the ice and they haven\u2019t practiced and this is just the early stages and we\u2019re dealing with two different timetables.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zucker added,<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a day-by-day thing, just see how my energy levels are, see how much food I can eat, how much weight I can get back and where the conditioning is at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zucker knows he has work to do to get back. He said,<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been trying to gain some strength, try to get some food, try to get my conditioning back, that dropped off significantly, so just trying to do those things and get back as soon as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zucker said he was either on the couch or in bed for almost two weeks. He said he also is very thankful for his family,<\/p>\n
\u201cMy fiancee was taking care of me, she did a great job, luckily she didn\u2019t get it, so I would\u2019ve been in one if she wasn\u2019t there so I was thankful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many thought Norris would be out two months or more. Ruff said,<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s done better which is encouraging for sure. I think we originally thought a little bit longer, but he\u2019s feeling really good, so to have him out there I look at it as ahead of schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s totally understandable that after all the work he put in during the summer that Norris was extremely upset when he got hurt. He said,<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was tough going through that, I just wanted to get off to a really good start and in preseason I got my game going and it was really good, but sometimes things happen that you don\u2019t understand and you have to live with that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were definitely some tough days for sure, but you\u2019ve just got to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Kesselring wasn\u2019t on the ice and is still in a walking boot. Ruff said,<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going to be further evaluated today, but it\u2019s going to be a little bit of time for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zach Metsa has been called up to be the extra defenseman and Jacob Bryson will be back in the lineup.<\/p>\n
Colten Ellis appears to be getting his second straight start and third start in four games. Ruff has like many aspects of the young goalie\u2019s game,<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s made some big saves at key times, his puck play has helped us out. You can frustrate a team by making sure that you\u2019re picking off the rims and you\u2019re stopping the plays that are going around, you can break out a little bit quicker, he\u2019s been good with that, but the most important part is sometimes for a goaltender it\u2019s just getting that big save at a crucial and I think you look at the save we got on that last penalty kill it was a big save at that time of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ellis is 2-1-0 with a 3.36 goals against and .895 save percentage.<\/p>\n
Buffalo is still last in the Eastern Conference and 29th in the NHL with a points percentage of .444. The Sabres are six points out of a playoff spot.<\/p>\n
The Edmonton Oilers come into Buffalo with three wins in four games. They also have just three wins in seven games.<\/p>\n
Connor McDavid has three goals and eight assists for 11 points in his last seven games against Buffalo. McDavid is second in league scoring with nine goals and 21 assists for 30 points in 20 games. Leon Draisaitl has 13 goals and 10 assists for 23 points in 20 games.<\/p>\n
Stuart Skinner has played in five of the Oilers last six games. He\u2019s 7-4-3 with a 2.77 goals against and .891 save percentage.<\/p>\n
The Sabres traded away Matt Savoie when they acquired Ryan McLeod from the Oilers. In 20 games he has two goals and three assists for five points.<\/p>\n
In the Western Conference the Chicago Blackhawks are seventh in the playoff race while the Vegas Golden Knights are eighth.The Minnesota WIld are ninth and the Oilers are 10th. All four teams have 22 points.<\/p>\n
Join \u201cSchoop and the Bulldog\u201d for the pregame starting at 6:00 when you\u2019ll hear from Ruff, Norris and Zucker.<\/p>\n
MONDAY\u2019S LINES:<\/p>\n
Doan – Thompson – Tuch<\/p>\n
Rosen- McLeod – Quinn<\/p>\n
Krebs – Kozak – Greenway<\/p>\n
Dunne – Ostlund – Malenstyn<\/p>\n
DEFENSE:<\/p>\n
Samuelsson – Dahlin<\/p>\n
Bryson – Power<\/p>\n
Byram – Timmins<\/p>\n
Geertsen – Metsa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) – During Monday\u2019s morning skate both Josh Norris and Jason Zucker joined their teammates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-297629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}