The Sabres will be down three players — Cody McCormick, Kyle Okposo and Jack Eichel — each listed as injured following today’s practice.
Eichel’s injury is the one causing most concern for fans. With less than ten minutes remaining in practice, he fell to the ice in front of one of the nets. His left leg got stuck under him as he crashed to the ice. The team — famous for its listed injury statuses as being either “upper body injury” or “lower body injury” stated that Eichel suffered a “high-ankle sprain.” It’s unknown how many games the team’s second-leading scorer from the 2015-2016 season will miss.
Thursday’s came is the first of four meetings between the Sabres and Canadiens this season. The team will head west following the game for a road trip that begins on Sunday at Edmonton. The team will not play another home game until Oct. 25 vs. Philadelphia.
The Sabres are 24-17-4 all-time in season-openers; 17-8-4 when opening at home. The Sabres have previously opened their season against the Canadiens five times in franchise history (1984-85, 1988-89, 1990-91, 2008-09 and 2009-10), with each game taking place in Buffalo. The Sabres have a 3-0-2 record in those games, each of which (excluding a 3-3 tie in 1990) was decided by a single goal. In addition to the five season-openers, the Sabres have opened their home schedule against Montreal three other times in franchise history (1970-71, 1976-77 and 2006-07). The Sabres have posted a 5-1-2 record in the eight total home-openers against the Canadiens.
The 23 players on the Sabres’ opening-day roster have combined to play 6,822 NHL games, 908 more than last year’s 23-man opening-day roster had between them. The average Sabres skater entering the 2015-16 season has played 40 more NHL games than his counterpart from last season.
Of the 23 players on Buffalo’s opening night roster:
- Seven were originally drafted by the Sabres — five were first-round Buffalo selections (Ennis, 2008; Girgensons, 2012; Ristolainen, 2013; Reinhart, 2014; Eichel, 2015), one was a second-round pick (McCabe, 2012) and one was a fourth-round pick (Foligno, 2009)
- 10 were acquired in trades: Bogosian, Deslauriers, Fasching, Gorges, Kane, Kulikov, Larsson, Lehner, Nilsson, O’Reilly
- Six were signed as free agents: Franson, Gionta, Grant, Moulson, Nelson, Okposo
- 19 played in Buffalo at some point last season (12 forwards, six defenseman, one goaltender)
- Four are new to the Sabres this season: Grant, Kulikov, Nilsson, Okposo
- Three are opening the season on an NHL roster for the first time in their careers: Fasching, Grant, Nelson
from Sabres Digital Press Box via IFTTT
