Sharpen Up: April 17, 2021 | Sabres open 5-game homestand this afternoon

It's another Buffalo Sabres game day. Buffalo begins one of the most condensed five-game homestands you'll ever see with all of those games crammed into five days.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are in town for back-to-back contests starting at 3 p.m. today. Watch on NBC or listen to Dan and Rob call the action on WGR 550.
The two clubs are hosting the NHL's first-ever joint Pride Game. We have details on that for you here in Sharpen Up.
Here's what you need to know.

Pride Game today

Watch: Youtube Video
The Sabres and Penguins' Pride Game aims to bring together two cities to celebrate LGBTQ+ communities by sharing stories of inclusion, hope and allyship.
Players from both teams will tape their sticks for pregame warmups with rainbow tape and take the ice wearing commemorative pride warmup jerseys featuring the Progress Pride Flag. Official Pride Game warmup pucks with a distinct colorful design will be used by both teams in pregame warmups.
The Penguins and Sabres will co-host a seven-day online auction featuring pride tape sticks, commemorative warmup jerseys and pucks, various signed items from both teams and more. The auction kicks off pregame today and runs through April 24 at 12 p.m.
To view the pride auction, click here.
The Sabres and Penguins will donate 100 tickets for the game to LGBTQ+ organizations and each fan in attendance will receive a Pride Game rally towel on their seat. Buffalo Gay Men's Chorus will sing the anthems before the game.
You Can Play hosted a panel discussion focused on hockey from the perspective of LGBTQ+ participants with ties to Buffalo and Pittsburgh. The discussion was hosted by Jonas Worth from You Can Play and the panel featured Buffalo referee Alex Valvo, Pittsburgh Tigers manager Adam Knoerzer and NHL player agent Bayne Pettinger.
You can watch the panel at the top of this section or by clicking this link.
For even more on what both teams are doing during the game, visit this site.

Yesterday's practice

Here's how the team lined up on Friday afternoon at KeyBank Center (from Sabres.com's Practice Report):

53 Jeff Skinner - 23 Sam Reinhart - 68 Victor Olofsson
96 Anders Bjork - 24 Dylan Cozens - 25 Arttu Ruotsalainen
74 Rasmus Asplund - 37 Casey Mittelstadt - 72 Tage Thompson
13 Tobias Rieder - 20 Cody Eakin - 38 Jean-Sebastien Dea / 49 C.J. Smith
26 Rasmus Dahlin - 10 Henri Jokiharju
78 Jacob Bryson - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
44 Matt Irwin / 88 Brandon Davidson - 33 Colin Miller
Dustin Tokarski and Michael Houser manned the nets.
Linus Ullmark is considered week-to-week after sustaining a lower-body injury on Tuesday, Sabres interim head coach Don Granato announced Friday.
Ullmark previously missed 15 games with a lower-body injury in February and March. The Sabres have 13 games remaining this season, which concludes May 8.

"Right now, it's week-to-week and we don't have many weeks left," Granato said. "So, that one's a little touchy."
The Sabres are also without Carter Hutton, who has been out since March 24 with a lower-body injury. Granato said Hutton has resumed skating on his own but there is no timetable for his return.
Granato said the team is looking to integrate goaltending prospect Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen into the NHL roster but is still determining a timeline for his potential recall. Luukkonen has been dealing with a minor lower-body injury that forced him to miss Rochester's game on Wednesday.
Granato also provided injury updates on forwards Kyle Okposo and Riley Sheahan, both of whom missed practice on Friday. Sheahan is considered day-to-day after sustaining an upper-body injury against Boston on Tuesday. Okposo is still being evaluated by doctors after he was hit in the head with a shot on Thursday.
Read more here.

Today's matchup

Courtesy of @SabresPR's Game Notes:
- Casey Mittelstadt has totaled eight points (6+2) in his last nine games, leading all Sabres in both goals and points during that stretch. - Mittelstadt leads Buffalo in both faceoff wins (20) and faceoff percentage (71.4) against Pittsburgh this year. His 71.4 win percentage (20-for-28) at the dot against the Penguins this season is his best against any opponent.