Less than a week ago, Buffalo Sabres GM Kevyn Adams spoke with the media at the opening of training camp at LECOM Harborcenter with news about the injury status of goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen that was so uncertain that the club opted to sign veteran goalie Alexandar Georgiev as an insurance policy, but following the Sabres intersquad scrimmage, head coach Lindy Ruff had encouraging news regarding his starting goalie. Â
“(Luukkonen) is really feeling pretty good,” Ruff said. Whether he’s ready to participate (in practice) on Monday or not, we’ll see, but (there have been) a couple of really good reports on how he’s progressing.”
Adams indicated last week that the 26-year-old goalie had a lower-body injury that he was having issues with. While the Sabres GM did not want to sound alarm bells, he determined that it was out of an abundance of caution to sign Georgiev, who started for Colorado and San Jose last season to a one-year, $825,000 one-way contract. Â
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The news was also positive on winger Alex Tuch, who missed the start of training camp with a minor lower-body injury. The 29-year-old tied a career-high with 36 goals last season and will be depended on to be a primary offensive contributor with the departure of second-leading scorer JJ Peterka calling into question whether the Sabres can generate enough goals to stay competitive in the Eastern Conference playoff race this season.Â
“We’ll get him to skate in on Monday and in all likelihood, if (he) doesn’t come into the lineup Monday or Tuesday, it’s only because he missed this amount of time,” Ruff said. “We’d like him to skate a little bit more. He would have loved to play in the scrimmage, but I thought he skated great this morning.”
The Sabres open their exhibition schedule in Columbus on Monday, and will face the Blue Jackets at KeyBank Center on Tuesday night.Â
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