Alex Lyon’s upper-body injury remains under evaluation, and Jiri Kulich is expected to miss Buffalo’s preseason finale, coach Lindy Ruff said Friday, a day after both players left a game in Detroit.
According to Buffalo’s injury update, the team should have more details on Lyon on Saturday. Kulich missed Friday’s practice for maintenance and was likely to skate Saturday, but not play against Pittsburgh, after his precautionary removal from Thursday’s game.
Lyon left with two minutes remaining in the first period after diving out of his crease to collect a loose puck. Colten Ellis replaced him and stopped 16 of 18 shots in Buffalo’s 3–2 overtime defeat at Little Caesars Arena.
Ruff told Sabres.com after the game that he was “optimistic it’s not too bad” regarding Lyon. Kulich wanted to continue playing, but the coaching staff chose to remove him rather than risk a further problem.
Buffalo also signed Matt Grzelcyk on Friday to a one-year contract worth $850,000. The left-shot defenseman joins a team missing Mattias Samuelsson and Olen Zellweger after both were injured earlier in the week.
Samuelsson is dealing with a lower-body injury and remains on a week-to-week timeline. Ruff said his return was a matter of pain tolerance and could come toward the earlier end of that window.
Zellweger has resumed skating while in concussion protocol. Ruff said Friday that he anticipated the defenseman being ready the following week; Buffalo’s update did not announce clearance to play.
Kulich scored Buffalo’s second goal Thursday, giving the Sabres a 2–1 lead early in the middle period. He had appeared in all three preseason games after missing most of last season because of a blood clot that was surgically removed in March.
Buffalo took that one-goal advantage into the third period before Sheldon Dries tied the game and Alex DeBrincat scored on a power play 32 seconds into overtime. Trevor Kuntar scored the Sabres’ opening goal.
The Sabres complete their preseason schedule against Pittsburgh on Saturday at KeyBank Center, with puck drop scheduled for 3 p.m. Eastern.
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