You can douse some of the sparklers set off by that scintillating victory Thursday night over the Montreal Canadiens. Reality set in fast Friday for the Buffalo Sabres.
The Sabres rode a 30-save performance by 40-year-old goalie Craig Anderson to a 5-1 season-opening win over the Montreal Canadiens.
And not just the fact the much-anticipated opener is over and the real work of the 82-game grind now begins. We're talking about the injury bug already buzzing in for a visit to KeyBank Center.
When the Sabres hit the ice for Saturday's matinee against the Arizona Coyotes, they're going to do it without their No. 1 center and half of their top defense pair. And they're going to have to get used to that for a while.
Center Casey Mittelstadt and blueliner Henri Jokiharju were injured in Thursday's 5-1 victory and coach Don Granato revealed after practice they're both going to be out at least a couple of weeks.
"It's not short term," Granato said. "Our doctor will be evaluating that. There's still thought that it could be right around that range and there's thought that it could go a little bit longer than that, so it's too early to tell on both those injuries."
Mittelstadt left the win over the Habs in the second period with what the team termed an upper-body injury. Jokiharju suffered a lower-body injury in the first period but played through it while partnered with Rasmus Dahlin until the final four minutes of the game.
"You never want to see anyone get injured and then obviously first game of the season with so much excitement," said center Tage Thompson. "But I think we've got the guys to do it, guys who are capable of stepping up and filling that role. I think everyone is just going to pull together."
Replays showed Mittlestadt appeared to have suffered a left hand or wrist injury when slashed by Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher while pushing the puck ahead to Vinnie Hinostroza for a second-period breakaway. Mittelstadt pulled his left hand off his stick after Gallagher swiped at him and appeared to turn over his shoulder to admonish a referee for the incident.
"They're big losses," Granato said. " 'Joki' has been paired with (Dahlin) and done a real good job and Mittsy was in essence our No. 1 center, so I'm bummed for those two guys because they came in the season prepared and in shape. They had a great training camp and right away this happened, so it's a bummer."
Connection is a word that resonates in Buffalo Sabres history. We saw it again in a season opener nothing short of stunning.
Here's the impact of the two injuries:
Forwards: Mittelstadt, 22, had come off a great training camp and was ready to take on the 200-foot challenge of being the club's top center. Now that's on hold and the duty is going to be thrust upon 20-year-old Dylan Cozens.
"That means I've got to step up here," said Cozens. "I'm ready to step up and want to take as much responsibility as I can, do what I can to help this team win. Obviously you want to build off momentum, but we hope Casey comes back as soon as possible."
Cozens slots in for Mittelstadt on the top line between Jeff Skinner and Vinnie Hinostroza and Arttu Ruotsalainen will thus make his season debut on Saturday; he centered Drake Caggiula and Anders Bjork on Friday.
"We’ve got to really work to score, and we’ve got to do it together," Rasmus Dahlin said.
The other two lines had Thompson between Rasmus Asplund and Victor Olofsson, with Cody Eakin centering alternate captains Zemgus Girgensons and Kyle Okposo.
Something to watch going forward was how the organization's center depth was quietly augmented Friday when the Rochester Amerks signed veteran Mark Jankowski to a one-year AHL contract after he was released from his tryout with the New Jersey Devils.
Jankowski, 27, had four goals and seven assists in 45 games last year for Pittsburgh and has played 253 NHL games with the Penguins and Calgary. He was originally drafted in the first round by the Flames in 2012 and played on the 2015 Providence team that beat Jack Eichel-led Boston University in the NCAA Frozen Four championship game.
The Sabres have plenty of roster and cap space if they get a look at Jankowski in Rochester and decide they need to offer him an NHL contract.
Defense: The Dahlin-Jokiharju pairing dates to last season and was a lock from Day One of training camp this year. But Dahlin battled injury himself during an uneven preseason, missing practice for a couple of days, and losing his partner right out of the block is obviously not ideal.
In practice Friday, Will Butcher took Jokiharju's place with Dahlin and will be in line to make his Sabres debut on Saturday. The other two pairs remained the same as Robert Hagg skated with Mark Pysyk and Jacob Bryson with Colin Miller.
A wild card on the back end is Mattias Samuelsson, who has been out since taking a shot to the foot in the first game of the Prospects Challenge last month. Granato revealed that Samuelsson has skated the last three days and could return to practice within a week.
The initial thought was the Sabres would send Samuelsson to Rochester to get back up to speed, but they now have a need in Buffalo and it's conceivable the 21-year-old who played 12 NHL games last season initially gets back on the ice here. The Sabres could just go with him, which would be a surprise given the fact he missed all of training camp.
Ruotsalainen and Butcher joined John Hayden as healthy scratches in the opener. Granato said Wednesday there would not be any drama over who wasn't playing because he expected to use everyone soon. This is probably sooner than he had envisioned.
"We didn't want to sit anybody out," Granato said. "We're an evolving team. We need to see everybody, everybody needs to play, everybody needs to work as much as they can. And you can only give guys so much ice time. Obviously when you take two out, it's more ice time for somebody else that needs to evolve their game. That's the silver lining for them."
