Cleared to return to the Buffalo Sabres’ lineup after rigorous on-ice workouts with assistant coach Matt Ellis, Casey Mittelstadt centered Kyle Okposo and Rasmus Asplund during practice Friday in preparation for his first game since Jan. 30.
The addition will give the Sabres four young, talented centers when the puck drops against the Colorado Avalanche in KeyBank Center at 1 p.m. Saturday: Mittelstadt, Dylan Cozens, Peyton Krebs and Tage Thompson.
“He recovered well from a couple really difficult, challenging workouts, and I think he’s in a great place,” Sabres coach Don Granato said of Mittelstadt.
This is the third time this season that Mittelstadt is returning from an injury or setback. Mittelstadt suffered an upper-body injury in the season opener Oct. 14 and a separate ailment in the same area required surgery in December. He’s skated in just seven of the Sabres’ 49 games this season, preventing the 23-year-old from building on an impressive training camp in which he established himself as the club’s top forward.
Despite 31 shots on net and stellar goaltending from Dustin Tokarski, the Buffalo Sabres lost 4-1 to become the latest victim of the Colorado Avalanche’s 18-game win streak at home.
Drafted eighth overall by Buffalo in 2017, Mittelstadt can help the Sabres in several areas. He’s shown poise on the power play and possesses the blend of speed and skill that’s tailor-made for Granato’s puck-possession, attacking system. And Mittelstadt’s return gives the Sabres more options to build an effective lineup that can produce secondary scoring.
While Thompson, Alex Tuch and Jeff Skinner have played like a formidable top line most nights, Granato noted the group had an uncharacteristically disconnected performance in the 3-1 loss to Ottawa on Thursday.
“We keep referring to the Thompson line and I’m not sold that we have three guys that have to stay together,” Granato said following practice Friday in LECOM Harborcenter. “With Mittsy coming back in the lineup, you have the potential skill that we have coming into the lineup, guys that we’ve seen. …
Buffalo owns a 14-24-7 record, 20 points out of a playoff spot, ahead of its matchup Thursday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets in KeyBank Center.
“Those guys have played extremely well lately. They did not play well last night. Last night was not a good game for them. They will be the first to tell you that. It stemmed, really, from we didn’t work hard enough, we didn’t compete hard enough as a team and it really showed with them because they had been pretty dominant prior to last night. Last night, they were as ineffective as anybody.”
Each member of the line skated more than 20 minutes and they combined for seven shots on goal during a game in which every player in the lineup seemed to make bad decisions with the puck. It was in stark contrast to what the trio did in prior games.
Among the 104 forward lines in the NHL to skate at least 110 minutes together at 5-on-5 this season, Skinner-Thompson-Tuch entered Friday ranked fifth in goals per 60 minutes (4.86) and 18th in generating shot quality, according to Evolving-Hockey. Their shooting percentage was 12th, while their shot attempt differential and shot quality share are both above 50% during their 111 minutes, 51 seconds together.
Buffalo Sabres right winger Alex Tuch (89) celebrates his goal with center Tage Thompson (72) in the second period.
It’s important to note that each has experienced individual success when skating away from the others, but their play in a 6-3 win Tuesday night led Islanders coach Barry Trotz to refer to them as Buffalo’s “big line.”
“Both of those guys are so easy to play with,” Tuch said of his linemates. “Such high-end talents. Honestly, I don’t think their work ethic gets enough credit. You see them on the forecheck, backcheck, D-zone, everything. They’re doing a lot of little things right now that are allowing our line to be successful. It’s a lot of fun. We’re having a lot of fun. We’ve built some good chemistry and we want to keep it going and keep growing as a line.”
However, the Sabres could establish better secondary scoring by separating the dynamic goal scorers.
In 14 games since Tuch’s return from Covid-19 protocol last month, the 25-year-old winger ranks 20th in the NHL in points (16) and 15th in goals per 60 minutes. He has seven goals and 19 points while averaging 20 minutes, one second of ice time across 17 games in a Sabres uniform.
Skinner, 29, is having a bounce-back season, delivering 20 goals, including four in a win over Montreal on Sunday, and 34 points in 40 games. His 222 even-strength goals since the start of 2010-11 rank seventh in the NHL during that span.
Pleased with his connection with linemates Alex Tuch and Jeff Skinner, Thompson knows his goals will come soon.
And Thompson has been the club’s most consistent play-driving center, tied with Skinner for the team lead in points and scoring a career-high 16 goals. Thompson, 24, hadn’t played center since his time at the University of Connecticut.
“You see so much more of his skill potential and his impact in a game,” Granato said of Thompson last month. “His creativity, his ability to extend possession, make plays. He has fast become a name around the league. He’s been our top center with Mittelstadt out, but I think it’s easy to see for teams around the league that this is a legitimate future top-end center.”
In the Sabres’ last seven games, Skinner, Thompson and Tuch have combined for 10 goals – the team has 21 during that span – and 22 points. But the two wingers also played well when centered by Cozens in Arizona on Jan. 29, and there’s a reason why Mittelstadt entered the season as Buffalo’s No. 1. center.
Buffalo Sabres center Casey Mittelstadt (37) celebrates after scoring a goal against Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Joonas Korpisalo (70) in the first period at KeyBank Center in Buffalo.
Mittelstadt was the team’s best forward in the preseason, and it wasn’t close. He had 17 points over the final 22 games last season and played well in three December games before an injury that required surgery. The Sabres are unlikely to give Mittelstadt a heavy workload during the weekend back-to-back after he missed the previous five games. But he’ll have the opportunity to earn more ice time.
For now, the Sabres will keep the big three together, with Cozens centering Krebs and Victor Olofsson. Krebs, 21, is also a center but recently moved to the wing, where he’s displayed his remarkable vision and playmaking ability. More skill will be added once Jack Quinn is healthy and JJ Peterka earns a promotion, increasing the odds that Skinner-Thompson-Tuch won’t be together for the long term.
“I’m not in a rush to change them,” Granato said. “We keep bringing up that line as if they’re going to be together forever and the reality is they probably will be together a lot, but we also need to be aware that sometimes it can be a benefit to shift Skinner with Mittsy or Tuch with Mittsy or flip things around a little bit depending on matchups, depending on how things are going. I think we have the makings of skill coming into our organization where we’re going to have a lot of flexibility when it comes to lines.”
