Mittelstadt to play Saturday vs. Avalanche

Casey Mittelstadt will return to the lineup for the Sabres' home game against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday afternoon, coach Don Granato announced.
Mittelstadt has missed five contests since exiting Buffalo's game in Colorado on Jan. 30. Granato said his absence was the result of fluid that had accumulated around the area where he had surgery to repair an upper-body injury in December.
Mittelstadt skated on his own through the All-Star break and has been practicing with the Sabres since Feb. 8. His session with assistant coach Matt Ellis on Tuesday was designed to surpass the conditioning demands of a game.
"He looks good," Granato said. "He survived Matt Ellis' workouts and physical battles. No, but he looks good. He recovered well from a couple of really difficult challenging workouts, and I think he's in a great place."

Mittelstadt has been limited to seven games this season, having originally sustained an upper-body injury on opening night. He returned to play three games in December before undergoing surgery.
"It's been extremely hard this year, watching the guys and wanting to be out there with them," he said after the All-Star break. "I'm gonna do whatever I can to get out there and be 100% and then play with the guys and try to finish the season strong here."
Granato did not rule out Mittelstadt playing on back-to-back days. The Sabres visit the Blue Jackets on Sunday after hosting the Avalanche.
"We'll wait and see tomorrow, how he feels after," Granato said. "I think he's gonna feel normal, but we'll wait to see. I'm pretty optimistic he's gonna feel pretty good."
Video: Friday's Practice Report
Here's how the group lined up:
| February 18 | | --- | | LW | C | RW | | 53 Jeff Skinner | 72 Tage Thompson | 89 Alex Tuch | | 19 Peyton Krebs | 24 Dylan Cozens | 71 Victor Olofsson | | 74 Rasmus Asplund | 37 Casey Mittelstadt | 21 Kyle Okposo | | 96 Anders Bjork | 20 Cody Eakin | 15 John Hayden | | | 17 Mark Jankowski | | | LD | RD | G | | 26 Rasmus Dahlin | 10 Henri Jokiharju | 41 Craig Anderson | | 8 Robert Hagg | 13 Mark Pysyk | 31 Dustin Tokarski | | 23 Mattias Samuelsson | 78 Jacob Bryson | | | | 45 Casey Fitzgerald | |