The Buffalo Sabres want to build off a shootout win when they host the Utah Mammoth on Tuesday, but coach Lindy Ruff’s team will likely enter the game banged up at the forward position.
Left wing Jason Zucker and center Jiri Kulich did not practice with the team Monday, and left wing Zach Benson also missed Monday after not playing in Saturday’s 4-3 win over the Washington Capitals. The 20-year-old has battled a lower-body issue that could keep him out for a week, according to reports.
Ruff told reporters Monday he considered Zucker, 33, doubtful for Tuesday. His four goals are tied for third on the team with Josh Doan.
“We’ve got some roster stuff we definitely have to talk about… We’re going to have to take a hard look at what we can do,” Ruff said.
The Mammoth are looking to break a two-game losing streak as they start their second four-game road trip in less than two weeks. They fell 4-2 at home Sunday to Tampa Bay as the Lightning broke a tie with two goals in the final eight minutes. Utah’s skid comes on the heels of a seven-game winning streak.
For now, Utah coach Andre Tourigny is urging his team, which just missed the playoffs last spring, to remember that a season is not defined by how it starts.
“Everybody in the league will go 8-3 at some point,” Tourigny said Sunday after the loss. “We cannot get carried away. We need to be consistent.”
Utah will come to Buffalo with one of the top scorers in the league. Nick Schmaltz has 17 points (seven goals, 10 assists) in 12 games and ranks seventh in the NHL with 6.9 goals created. Teammate Logan Cooley (eight goals, four assists) is 18th with 5.8 goals created in 12 games.
Schmaltz was held without a point for just the second time this season in Sunday’s loss, breaking an eight-game points streak. Cooley saw a four-game points streak end as well.
Buffalo’s home win over the Capitals on Saturday snapped a three-game skid. Alex Tuch and Tage Thompson both scored their team-best fifth goals of the season in the win.
The Sabres also are tied with the Philadelphia Flyers for the league’s best penalty kill, allowing just four goals in 42 chances (90.5%).
The power play was a big part of the Mammoth’s success during their winning streak, as they scored seven goals with the man advantage in six of the wins. They’ve gone 0-for-5 in the losses to Edmonton and Tampa Bay.
Tuesday’s game will mark the first time the teams have played each other since Utah sent Doan and Michael Kesselring to Buffalo in a summer trade for JJ Peterka, whose 10 points (four goals, six assists) are fifth-best for the Mammoth.
Doan is tied for third on the Sabres with nine points, and Kesselring just started playing with the team this past week after a lower-body injury sidelined him in preseason action.
Ruff said Doan has been able to take advantage of playing on the Sabres’ first-team power-play unit to get off to a fast start, while Kesselring’s injury has kept him from reaching his best form.
“He is actually still trying to feel comfortable with the way we play,” Ruff said. “I don’t think he’s at the top of his game, and I think there’s a lot more to see.”
