The Buffalo Sabres got Dylan Cozens, Zemgus Girgensons and Mark Jankowski back from the Covid-19 protocol list Monday and started practice in KeyBank Center with 16 forwards on the ice.
Granato, who entered Covid-19 protocol on Sunday, missed the last two games. Assistant Matt Ellis directed the club in Wednesday's loss to New Jersey in KeyBank Center and Thursday's loss to the New York Islanders in UBS Arena.
But they were missing defenseman Casey Fitzgerald and coach Don Granato confirmed that Fitzgerald went on the list Monday. A bigger issue was veteran forward Kyle Okposo, who opened practice on a line with Peyton Krebs and Victor Olofsson, but then left the ice when he learned he was being added as well. The pair joined holdover Jacob Bryson on the list.
"We pulled him off when we found out," Granato said. "Everything's a concern right now. It's crazy times again. It's happened in games in major league sports. So I think everybody is trying to do their best to get information as fast as they can. I think everybody is on overload, especially in that department, with respect to testing. But yes, it's all a concern. There’s no question this has been ridiculously challenging."
Granato said video coaches Myles Fee and Justin White have been released from the protocol and returned after missing the last three games as well. Meanwhlie, veteran defenseman Colin Miller, who has been out the last three games with an undisclosed injury, skated on his own Monday and should return to practice Tuesday.
Girgensons said he had a fever for one day and otherwise felt fine. Cozens, who was in isolation last year with Team Canada at the World Juniors and again with the Sabres when he was on the Covid list during their February outbreak, was particularly frustrated at his latest bout with the virus.
"Definitely grateful when the league changed the protocol to only five days and I managed to get out a little sooner than I thought, but definitely frustrated," Cozens said. "I felt great, felt no differences from my everyday life, which made it even more frustrating watching the games knowing I felt 100%. A lot of guys feel that way, too."
Cozens said he had some workout gear sent to his home and took out some frustration doing some boxing on a Virtual Reality headset.
"It goes over your eyes and takes you to a whole other place," Cozens said, as he entertained reporters with some shadow boxing. "You move your head and stuff. So I was standing in my room boxing with it. It's really good conditioning. I recommend it to anyone else that gets Covid."
Dealing with leads
The Bruins posted a 4-3 overtime win in TD Garden as Charlie Coyle beat Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen on a wrist shot after 34 seconds.
The Sabres blew a 3-1 lead after two periods Saturday in Boston and suffered a 4-3 overtime defeat. It's an NHL-high sixth time this season the Sabres lost when leading after 40 minutes (7-2-4). There are 25 teams in the league that have no more than two losses when leading after two periods.
So what's the Sabres issue with playing from in front?
"It seems like when we get into trouble. Our challenge is management with the puck," Granato said. "When I go back through the game, and I look at the chances that were given up, we had the puck on our stick and didn't execute. So a little bit like an operator error, it's not a systematic breakdown. It's you had your two options, and you fumbled the puck, turned it over and we didn't make a clean play.
"That's growth and that's development that needs to happen. That's a sign of youth maybe showing its head at that time,. You feel a little bit more pressure. It was the same play in the first period, you made it. Now for some reason, you feel like the game's on the line, and you're telegraphing that you're going to pass it there."
Lots of practice time
The Sabres are in a bizarre stretch of the schedule with just one game in a nine-day span, Thursday's visit by San Jose. Overall, because of the schedule and their Covid postponements, Buffalo will have only four games from Dec. 18 through Jan. 10, so Granato is getting a chance for some extended practice time.
"They don’t have to worry about an opponent, so we’re going to have to push them a little harder as coaches," he said. "They can afford to take in a little more information now. But different than training camp, it’s all film from last game, it’s film from the game before, it’s film specifically to you and your skill set, which you don’t do that as much in training camp because you don’t have the repetitions against NHL competition.
"We have extra time, we’ll use it and we’ll target things different. And it’s a silver lining in an NHL schedule. You don’t get this often and we’ll take advantage."
Peterka honored by AHL
JJ Peterka left the Sabres Saturday in Boston and cleaned up in two weekend games for the Rochester Amerks, earning AHL Player of the Week honors. In a 5-3 loss at Springfield on Saturday, Peterka had a goal and two assists– all in the first period. He added a goal and an assist in Sunday's 4-3 win in Hartford.
Peterka, 19, leads all AHL rookies with 19 assists and is second in rookie scoring with 25 points in 25 games for Rochester. He made his NHL debut for the Sabres last week, playing in Wednesday's loss to New Jersey and Thursday's defeat against the New York Islanders.
