We'll be on injury watch today at practice. The Sabres have a long list of names on the injury report, including four defensemen.
Dmitry Kulikov missed both games earlier this week, but was on the ice for practice on Sunday and is a possibility to play on Friday. He's missed 13 games with a lower-back injury that was first aggravated in the season opener.
Taylor Fedun has missed two games with a shoulder injury. He was day-to-day earlier in the week so we'll have to see if he is ready to return or not.
Zach Bogosian was still weeks away from returning when we last got an update from coach Dan Bylsma. He's dealing with an MCL sprain that has forced him to miss 17 games and Josh Gorges will also be out weeks after injuring his foot in a game on Dec. 1.
The injuries on defense have put the Sabres in a tough spot personnel-wise. Brendan Guhle is up on an emergency basis from his junior club, Justin Falk is playing big minutes on recall from Rochester and Erik Burgdoerfer suited up for the first two NHL games of his eight-year professional career.
And forwards haven't been able to avoid the injury bug either. Tyler Ennis underwent groin surgery and has been out the past 14 games. He'll still be out for a while.
Nicolas Deslauriers, who has missed 19 games with a knee injury, is skating again and was seen on the ice before Buffalo's game against Edmonton on Tuesday. He still has a ways to go in his recovery process.
The Sabres are also without Cody McCormick, who has not played since Jan. 9. 2015 due to blood clots.
We were able to catch up with McCormick last weekend during a special screening of "Secret Path," a film directed by The Tragically Hip's Gord Downie that is working to shed light on the long-supressed mistreatment of Indigenous children and families by the residential school system in Canada.
