Updated:
Eric Staal will play tonight versus Washington.
The Buffalo Sabres will make a decision on whether to play or sit center Eric Staal at 5:00pm Eastern time today. The veteran pivot will be a game time decision Friday night.
Staal, 36, suffered an injury in Buffalo’s 6-4 season opening loss to the Washington Capitals on Thursday night after receiving an illegal head hit from Caps plugger Nic Dowd.
After the illegal head hit, Dowd went to the penalty box to serve a measly two-minute minor while Staal was forced to spend the rest of his Sabres debut in the quiet room.
That seems fair, right?
A decorated future hockey Hall of Famer, Staal had himself a strong training camp. He has added immediate value at the 2C position and improves the Sabres in the leadership department. For his efforts, Staal got his head knocked off by a reckless ham and egger and the on-ice officials botched the penalty call. To add insult to Staal’s injury, the Department of Player Safety stuck its head in the sand like an ostrich. Dowd was not invited to attend a socially distanced Zoom meeting with DoPS on Friday.
Typical.
On Wednesday night, St. Louis Blues energy forward Sammy Blais drilled Colorado Avs defenseman Devon Toews in the head. On Thursday, Blais was swiftly suspended for two games for his indiscretion. Yet no justice for Eric Staal. It’s the same NHL gong show regarding head hits only in a different season. One of these days the National Hockey League will abolish illegal hits to the head and protect all 720 players that comprise the NHLPA. Until then, we will continue to scream obscenities at the servers in the clouds while the players are forced to settle their scores on the ice.
Its Sabres and Capitals again tonight and I expect the home team to exact some revenge of its own on Washington. There may be knuckles involved. My guess is that Caps enforcer Tom Wilson will have to get involved to protect Dowd from any pugnacity and truculence that Rasmus Ristolainen, Jake McCabe, Jack Eichel and the Sabres throw at him.
Because the Sabres don’t have a heavyweight on their highly skilled roster, the best way for them to exact revenge upon Dowd is to jam the Washington crease and hunt for loose change. The Washington defense will lose its collective discipline and will take dumb penalties.
The Sabres will be aggressively in drawing minor penalties. I can see a scenario where the on-ice officials call a tight game and hand out many penalties to set the tenor for Friday night’s rematch. The Buffalo power play went 1 for 3 on Thursday night. Taylor Hall's first ever goals in the Royal Blue and Gold was scored on the power play. Buffalo's PP1 personnel grouping of Hall-Eichel-Olofsson-Dahlin-Reinhart is as good as it gets in the NHL on the power play. Krueger will have his electrifying power play performers ready to move the puck and find the open man to catch Caps rookie tendy Vitek Vanacek off balance. Vanacek will be making his NHL debut for the Capitals. Youngster Ilya Samsonov started Thursday’s night’s game for the Caps.
If Staal is ruled out of the rematch, Ralph Krueger will elevate Riley Sheahan to the second line center slot to skate with Victor Olofsson and Samson Reinhart. will be moved to center.
Sheahan played right wing beside center Curtis Lazar and Jeff Skinner in the season opener.
“We’ve got a backup plan,” Krueger said on a Zoom call Friday morning from KeyBank Center.
Krueger also said that rookie Dylan Cozens may get some work at center if Staal is a scratch. Krueger raved about Cozens and how well he played in his NHL debut after starring for Team Canada’s silver medal winning squad at the World Junior Hockey Championships.
“We love the way Dylan entered yesterday,” Krueger said. “He was extremely responsible, being able to break down video now last night and this morning. You could really see how smart he is in both directions and you can see the center experience in him.
“Depending on what happens here, that could even be in-game again, a situation where you might want to push for a little more offense and he does give us that option. Initially, we would want to be a little more stable defensively down the middle.”
Krueger also said that veteran winger Kyle Okposo will miss his second straight game on Friday night.
“We’re hoping he gets back in the next few days,” Krueger said. “It could be day-by-day or it could be three or four.”
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Taylor Hall and Tobias Rieder both scored in their Sabres debuts last night vs. Washington.
If either player scores tonight, he will become the first Sabres player to score in each of his first two games with the franchise since Jochen Hecht did so on Oct. 10 and 12, 2002.
Dylan Cozens recorded his first NHL point in his NHL debut last night with the primary assist on Rieder’s goal.
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Jake McCabe recorded his eighth career multi-point game (1G,1A) last night. It was his first since November 17, 2018 at Minnesota. McCabe also recorded his first ever career Gordie Howe hat trick against the Capitals on Thursday night.
Rasmus Dahlin has recorded seven points (2G,5A) in six career meetings with the Capitals.
Samson Reinhart has totaled eight points (4G,4A) in his last eight games against Washington.
Taylor Hall has recorded eight points (3G,5A) in his last seven meetings with the Capitals.
Jack Eichel has posted eight points (3G,5A) in seven games against the Capitals since the beginning of the 2017-18 season.
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The NHL is moving the dates of two Sabres games. Here are the details:
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