Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Tough news for Sabres: Ristolainen now week-to-week

Arizona Coyotes v Buffalo Sabres

BUFFALO, NY - MARCH 2: Rasmus Ristolainen #55 of the Buffalo Sabres during the game against the Arizona Coyotes at the KeyBank Center on March 2, 2017 in Buffalo, New York. Sabres beat the Coyotes 6-3. (Photo by Kevin Hoffman/Getty Images) *** Local Caption ***Rasmus Ristolainen"n"n

Getty Images

Hockey fans annoyed by “day-to-day” updates should be careful what they wish for, because “week-to-week” is becoming a more common thing, and it’s more annoying. You might consider seven times as annoying, even.

After missing two games with an upper-body injury, Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen goes from day-to-day to week-to-week.

Buffalo is already dealing with the loss of blueliners, although it’s worth noting that not all of the injury news was bad. Head coach Phil Housley mentioned that Josh Gorges and Nathan Beaulieu are both nearing returns from their ailments:

All of these issues meant a heavy workload for Marco Scandella, particularly during Tuesday’s 3-1 win against the Washington Capitals, as the former Wild defenseman logged 26:34 of ice time. (Taylor Fedun stands out as another defenseman who was pressed into more duty amid all of these issues.)

Now, it’s fair to acknowledge the devil’s advocate argument that Ristolainen can be a real mess in his own zone. That said, his possession stats have shown some improvement through 13 games in 2017-18, prompting one to wonder if Housley might be able to help the well-compensated Finn.

The Sabres are on the verge of a back-to-back set, as they’ll host the Panthers on Friday and then face the Canadiens in Montreal on Saturday. That trip to Montreal begins a three-game road swing; following that, they’ll play four in a row and six of seven in Buffalo.

That opens the door for the Sabres to make some progress, but it sounds like they’ll spend a substantial portion of that time without Ristolainen.


James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.