Sabres’ UPL, Tage Thompson won’t play versus Flyers; Jordan Greenway injured

BUFFALO – In Tage Thompson’s absence against the St. Louis Blues, centers Ryan McLeod and Dylan Cozens picked up the slack for the Sabres’ leading scorer.

McLeod scored once and created linemate Alex Tuch’s late tying goal in Thursday’s 4-3 overtime win by deftly feeding him from behind the net.

Earlier in the third period, Cozens knocked down Oskar Sundqvist before racing to the net and converting a rebound. While officials overturned the goal because winger Zach Benson interfered goalie Jordan Binnington, coach Lindy Ruff said the aggressive play set a tone for the rest of the period.

Backup goalie Devon Levi stopped all eight shots he faced in the third period, shaking off a tough 40 minutes to help the Sabres secure their fourth win in five tries.

“We got contributions from a lot of different players, and it was important in that game to help us win,” Ruff said following Friday’s practice in KeyBank Center.

Over the first 17 games, injuries and underperforming players have forced the Sabres to utilize their depth. They’re likely going to keep relying heavily on it.

Winger Jordan Greenway left Friday’s practice early with an undisclosed injury. Ruff said he could miss Saturday’s contest against the Philadelphia Flyers, the start of a four-game road trip.

“He’s got like a nagging ailment that he’s been playing through,” Ruff said. “Today it bothered him enough he had to leave the ice.”

Ruff said if Greenway can’t play, they could recall a forward from the Rochester Americans. According to the TheAHL.com transactions page, they summoned rookie Jiri Kulich early Friday night. Kulich, 20, recorded one goal in eight games with the Sabres earlier this season.

Greenway skated just 13 minutes, 29 seconds Thursday, his second-lowest total this season. He missed one game last month with a lower-body injury.

For at least one more contest, the Sabres will be without Thompson, their top center, and starting goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.

While both are progressing – Luukkonen practiced Friday, while Thompson skated on his own – the Sabres want to be careful.

Ruff said Luukkonen, who suffered a lower-body injury in Sunday’s practice, is ready but will be given more rest. After Saturday, the Sabres don’t play again until Wednesday against the Los Angeles Kings.

“We’re not going to play him (in Philadelphia),” Ruff said. “We just feel with where the schedule is, why push him in when we have four or five more days before we play again?”

Luukkonen said: “I feel like we’re just trying to be smart with it now.”

Ruff said Thompson, who suffered a lower-body injury in Monday afternoon’s 7-5 loss to the Montreal Canadiens, could play Wednesday.

“He skated this morning but just wasn’t right yet,” he said.

So in the meantime, the Sabres need McLeod, Cozens and others to keep filling the void.

McLeod, perhaps the Sabres’ biggest offseason addition, looks like a player ready to take on more responsibility. His minutes are up this season. Having already scored five goals, he’s on pace for 24. He registered a career-high 12 goals last season with the Edmonton Oilers.

“I thought he stepped up the way we needed,” Ruff said following Thursday’s game. “It was the next man’s opportunity and he took advantage of it.”

Others have seized their opportunities. Over the first month, Jacob Bryson and Dennis Gilbert served as the Sabres’ spare defensemen.

But Ruff needed a spark earlier this month, so he turned to them. Bryson has played six straight games, mostly recently earning duty alongside Owen Power. Gilbert has played four of the last five contests.

“It’s nice to get back in the swing of things and being on a schedule again, knowing you’re going to play sometimes is nice,” said Bryson, who sat out the first 11 games. “So it gives you a little bit of confidence when you go out there.”

Having lost defenseman Mattias Samuelsson to a long-term lower-body injury, Bryson or Gilbert should keep playing.

They’ve been in the lineup together because Ruff has scratched defenseman Henri Jokiharju, a regular for five years, for five straight games.

“I would love to get him a game,” Ruff said of Jokiharju. “We know that we’re going to need everybody, just like a forward’s going down, a D’s gone down. We lost Sammy. That D corps, the way it’s been, has won four of the last five games. I’ve liked a lot of the way our guys have played. So it’s evaluating which guy I would take out.”

Ruff, who has been awarding huge minutes to Rasmus Dahlin and Bowen Byram, his top defense tandem, wants to keep his third pairing of Gilbert and Connor Clifton intact.

“When we need physicality, I think Gilbert adds a lot to our team back there,” he said. “And when we’ve been able to play the top four that number of minutes, with Clifton and Gilbert playing that five-six, it’s given us a real physical pair that are hard to play against, and they can be tone-setters.

“So we’re just trying to figure out whether (Jokiharju) can go back in for one of those guys in the top four, because we like the way the five-six (play) and what they’re doing.”

Not surprisingly, Ruff said Jokiharju is “frustrated.”

“I’ve got the saying, ‘When preparation meets opportunity, you can succeed,’” he said. “So his job is to make sure when he gets the opportunity, – and it will come, that opportunity will come – be ready for it.”