Sharpen Up: October 11, 2017

The Sabres return to practice today as they prepare to set out for a four-game road trip to the Pacific Time Zone.
They'll take on the San Jose Sharks tomorrow night at SAP Center at 10:30 p.m. ET. Check in with the GMC Game Night pregame show starting at 10 on MSG. We'll have full coverage throughout the day on Sabres.com.
Here's what you need to know.

The Sabres had a scheduled off day yesterday after a 6-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils on home ice Monday afternoon.

"I think the work part of it is competing and coming to play and playing for 60 minutes," coach Phil Housley said after the game. "We'll have spurts in our game where we look really, really good and then there's other areas where we're not getting back or a breakout, we're not giving our defensemen an out in the neutral zone or were not winning a race to the loose pucks and that's work and effort.
"But I think we've got to figure out those parts of our game as a group moving forward here, and hopefully the sooner the better."
Housley has stressed the importance of developing good habits in practice, so we'll see what drills the team goes through today and if any lineup changes are in store.
Stay tuned for full practice coverage here.

Next home game

The Sabres are back at it on home ice next Friday when the Vancouver Canucks come to town. Vancouver will be in the middle of a five-game road trip and coming off a game the night before in Boston.
Great seats are still available, and you can also check out different ticket packages like Mini-Packs and Family Packs.

Amerks Update

The Amerks are off to a great start after they won their first two games of the season last weekend. C.J. Smith and Justin Bailey have led the way on the stat sheet.
We have the full report for you here and be sure to check out Amerks.com throughout the week for all the latest news from our AHL affiliate.
Rochester hosts Utica on Friday.