Luukkonen, Kesselring exit with injuries in preseason loss to Pens

Goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and defenseman Michael Kesselring exited with injuries during the Buffalo Sabres’ 5-3 preseason loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins at KeyBank Center on Wednesday.

Luukkonen, who was making his preseason debut, left following the first period after reaggravating the lower-body injury that held him out of the start of training camp.

“UPL obviously felt good coming into the game,” Ruff said. “After he made a couple saves, just didn’t feel quite right, so we took him out. (It was) precautionary. (We’ll) see where he’s at tomorrow. Didn’t want to really risk anything.”

Ruff said the plan was to have Luukkonen play two periods. Luukkonen was out for the first eight days of training camp and missed the first four exhibition games due to the lower-body injury, which occurred during his offseason training. He had been practicing with the team since Sept. 25 prior to Wednesday’s start.

Luukkonen converted on 11 of 12 shot attempts before Alexandar Georgiev took over for the final two periods. Georgiev said he found out he’d go in the contest during the first intermission and stopped 10 of 13 shots over the final 40 minutes.

“I felt (I was) doing a lot of good things,” Georgiev said. “Tried to bring the positives from the game. The speed is fine and obviously today I'm gonna watch video and see what I can do better. I try to take it day by day, but a lot of good things, and you try to build it to the start of the season so you're sharp.”

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The Sabres still have three goalies on the roster – which needs to be cut to 23 players by Monday, Oct. 6 at 5 p.m. – in Luukkonen, Georgiev and Alex Lyon. Ruff has not ruled out the possibility of opening the regular season with all three on the roster.

Kesselring left the game late in the second period and did not return for the third after what Ruff called “an aggravation.” Ruff said Kesselring has dealt with the injury throughout training camp and is day to day.

Kesselring joins a quartet of Sabres defensemen who are battling injuries. Mattias Samuelsson has been sidelined since Sept. 26 with an upper-body injury and is considered week to week.

Owen Power missed practice on Tuesday and missed Wednesday’s game after he “strained something” on Monday, according to Ruff. Bowen Byram was a full participant in practice on Wednesday and could be active for the final preseason game on Friday.

Ruff expressed optimism that Power, Byram and Kesselring could be ready for the start of the regular season next Thursday.

“I feel Byram’s ready to come back in, whether we play him or not,” Ruff said. “Power’s really close to coming back in – he’s got a rehab skate. We don’t know where Kesselring will be at, but I feel pretty confident that we’re going to probably have them all back.”

The injuries have provided Ruff the opportunity to give more ice time to young blueliners Ryan Johnson and Radim Mrtka. The former played in his third preseason game – and tallied an assist – while the latter appeared in his fourth exhibition game on Wednesday.

Johnson has played back-to-back games with over 17:30 of ice time and is plus-2 through his three games. Mrtka has logged over 15 minutes in each of his games and has been an effective puck distributor on breakouts.

The Sabres fell at home for the first time in preseason action despite cutting a 3-1 second period lead to just one behind two goals from Josh Norris and a power-play goal from Dahlin.

“I think especially both the games at home, we played a lot of really good hockey, and tonight was hopefully just a one off,” Norris said.

Here’s more from the loss.

Norris, Krebs shine with multi-point performances

Shortly after the Sabres won the center-ice faceoff, Peyton Krebs took a pass along the wall and slid it to a streaking Norris who gained a step on the Penguins defenseman.

Norris maintained his balance despite being tripped up and slid the puck under Arturs Silovs’ pad 12 seconds after the Penguins opened the scoring. It was the first of two goals Norris scored Wednesday night.

The second goal came less than five minutes into the third period when Tage Thompson, stationed below the goal line, found a wide-open Norris backdoor. Norris has six points – three goals and three assists – through a trio of preseason games and is 28-for-43 on the faceoff dot.

“I feel good, feel healthy,” Norris said. “Excited to be playing hockey and just excited to be here.”

Norris was alongside Krebs for the first time in preseason action and the latter had a pair of assists, including the lead pass that sprung Norris one on one with the Penguins netminder.

Krebs has been called a “Swiss army knife” by Ruff and proved it once again by being place on the top line alongside Norris and Thompson.

“He’s a really good player, 200 feet” Norris said. “Another centreman out there so another way to cheat on draws if you have to, just little things like that. He’s super easy to play with.”

Up next

The Sabres conclude preseason action with a second game against the Penguins on Friday at 7 p.m. in Pittsburgh.