Playoff notebook | Ostlund to miss time; moving on from Game 5

Noah Ostlund made an immediate impact upon joining these Stanley Cup Playoffs, with an assist and an empty-net goal to help the Buffalo Sabres win his debut in Game 3.

For the time being, the Sabres will have to make do without the rookie forward. Ostlund is expected to miss “a period of time” after leaving Game 5 during the first period with a lower-body injury, coach Lindy Ruff announced Wednesday.

“The news wasn’t good,” Ruff said. “Don’t know exactly how much we know, but he’s gonna miss some time.”

Ostlund sustained his injury while battling for a puck with Bruins forward Casey Mittelstadt. Mittelstadt fell awkwardly on Ostlund’s left leg, sending the rookie forward limping down the tunnel to the Sabres’ dressing room.

Ostlund briefly emerged from the room to test the injury on the ice between whistles but was unable to continue playing.

Josh Norris is expected to slot into the lineup in place of Ostlund. Norris has been out since Game 2 with an undisclosed injury but began the playoffs centering a line with Zach Benson and Josh Doan – the same spot occupied by Ostlund in Games 3, 4 and 5.

Norris could simply rejoin the lineup in that spot, or Ruff could opt to tweak the forward lines in the wake of their overtime loss in Game 5. The Sabres had Wednesday off, meaning Thursday’s practice will be our first chance to look at the lineup.

“Overall, if you look at where our lines have been on the five-to-five play, all the lines have had great opportunities,” Ruff said. “Some lines have taken advantage of it, some haven’t, and there’s no hesitation with maybe flipping a piece around here or there.

“We’ve looked at the game. Like I said, there’s parts we need to get better at. Whether we reevaluate where our lines are at and flip a few pieces around, we’ll get to that.”

Watch Ruff’s full presser from Wednesday below.

Moving forward

The Sabres will have another close-out opportunity on Friday in Boston, where they’ve already won two games in this series.

It’s a new challenge for many of the players on this Sabres team, one they very nearly took care of in Game 5. They played a tight, competitive game against a desperate Bruins team and had multiple chances to win in overtime before David Pastrnak scored the deciding goal. Still, Ruff felt the opportunity to end the series had an affect on the game.

“I just sensed the little bit of nerves with our guys,” Ruff said. “Our puck play wasn't as good as in Boston, so just get them to relax, play our game and be ready to go.” 

Tough losses are a part of any playoff run. The Panthers, as an example, lost a combined four games in overtime on their last two Stanley Cup runs. The Sabres have done well responding to losses all season, employing a one-game-at-a-time mentality that they’ll look to stick with heading into Game 6.

“Really just focusing on our game,” Ruff said. “We'll go through parts of the game. There's two or three areas we can improve for next game that we weren't good enough at, and we'll show two or three areas that we thought we can take advantage of the other team. I just feel now, pressure kind of reverts back to them in their building, and they haven’t played well in their building, and we get to go there and play in their building where we've won two games.”

Up next

The Sabres will practice on Thursday prior to departing for Boston.

Game 6 is Friday at 7:30 p.m. on MSG (in the Sabres broadcast market) and ESPN.