The Sabres roster for tonight goes heavy on regulars. Rasmus Dahlin gets the night off after putting in 27 minutes on Wednesday. Bo Byram will play it seems. Lyon and Georgiev the goalies.

Holy shit dude what a catch

The Stadium Roar is always so good

Do it!

The thing I keep thinking daily is “why is everything so consistently colossally stupid”

That's a big ole deal right there - hoo buddy We knew Owen Power's contract would look better as time went on but that happened really quick. That said, LaCombe is outstanding in Anaheim.

the ncaa hockey season starts tomorrow. to kick off a bunch of preview stuff, please enjoy this breakdown of some of the biggest storylines to keep an eye on www.eliteprospects.com/news/ncaa/nc...

Lindy Ruff with some updates on the injured masses: Luukkonen and Kesselring to get more evaluation today. With UPL the hope is the issue now is different than it was before. Lower-body the issue. Mattias Samuelsson's progress is ahead of schedule and he'll practice tomorrow. 25 & 6 good progress

Sabres practice to get underway in a little while. Owen Power is doing passing exercises with Mike Ansell while in shorts and sneakers on the ice. It’s not much but it’s something.

Due to the ongoing truck entry issue at the border to the Canada, Interstate 190 near the border is basically a parking lot and there have been multiple accidents this morning as a result of it. Avoid it at all costs.

Preseason injuries to defense for the Sabres led to Rasmus Dahlin playing 27:07 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) tonight

Lindy Ruff said they'll get a better idea of Luukkonen's status tomorrow, but he wasn't feeling right tonight so they relieved him a period earlier than they scheduled. Ruff said Kesselring's been dealing with something since the start of camp and it acted up on him enough tonight. Day-to-day.

Pens win 5-3 but the teams will have a shootout for funzies

Tuch tries to wheel through a couple of Pens players in the neutral zone with the goalie pulled. Puck knocked away and Robby Fabbri dishes to Filip Hallander for the empty-netter to make it 5-3

Rasmus Dahlin goes full Pedro Cerrano to make it 4-3 on the first half of the double-minor. Beauty of a goal and Šilovs had no chance

Filip Hallander (and Blake Lizotte) appeared to catch Radim Mrtka in the face with high-sticks - it's Hallander who goes off for four minutes with 9:19 to go in the third.

A late forward change, a defense cross-up and Ville Koivunen had a whole lot of free ice ahead of him to the net to go in and beat Georgiev to make it 4-2

Mason Geertsen and Matt Dumba exchanging pops for the second shift in a row. Ryan Shea tried to interject but cooler heads prevail for now. Cannot imagine that's a fight Dumba wants to entertain

Scoring can be too easy sometimes. Tage Thompson by himself below the goal line has only a Pens player shadowing him and Josh Norris slides to the far post for a feed and bangs it home to cut it to 3-2

Does not appear Michael Kesselring came out for the third period so that's neat

The Sabres bench a little lighter at the end of the second as Michael Kesselring went down the tunnel a couple minutes ago. We're not at "our pets heads are fallin' off!" level yet but

After a bit of a reckless Jusin Danforth penalty, the Pens tack on another power play goal with Prospects Challenge stud Avery Hayes cashing in to make it 3-1

EBug is always here

Helping add to the atmosphere of a preseason NHL game is the smell of burned popcorn It's preseason for everyone

On a delayed call that was coming to Mrtka, Matt Dumba tees one up over the shoulder of Georgiev to make it 2-1 Pittsburgh in the second period - tip o' the cap - that was a ripper

Sabres say Luukkonen is OUT - he's reaggravated the lower-body issue that kept him out at the start of camp

A goalie change: Alexandar Georgiev is in net. The bad news: Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is not on the bench

Nice to see Shane Doan up here on the press level tonight checking out the game

Josh Doan, whose penalty allowed Pittsburgh to have a very brief 1-0 lead, immediately got taken off his line with Jack Quinn and Jiri Kulich and replaced by Justin Danforth

All Tristan Broz does is score against Sabres in exhibition games I'm sure he scores plenty in other games, but he excels in these situations. A power play goal thanks to a Josh Doan hooking penalty makes it 1-0. Buffalo ties it up immediately thanks to Josh Norris scoring after being tripped

This strongly WBS Pens group has pressed the very Buffalo Sabres lineup in this one and if there's one thing the vets really hate in preseason is running up on a gym class all-star effort in preseason.

Sabres group got stuck in their own end for an overly extended amount of time. Timmins was unable to get the puck deep on a couple of occasions including one pass up the gut in his own zone that got intercepted. Less than ideal but no damage done other than a shift that went way too long

Time for warmies, you guys. It's Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen for Buffalo and Artūrs Šilovs for Pittsburgh

The guy I saw outside KBC tonight in the William Nylander jersey must really love hockey and harassment

Who out there is hot for tonight's Sabres-Penguins preseason mayhem - because you're getting it whether you want it or not, dammit

Happy retirement to Sabres legend Erik Johnson

It’s just a little airborne. It’s still good! It’s still good!

On injuries, Ruff said he wasn't exactly concerned with their proliferation because sometimes they can just happen. Whether it's fatigue, ice conditions late during practice or games, or just dumb luck - they happen. He said they feel good because none should be long term

Lindy Ruff said Zach Benson has a little bit of an ailment, should be a short-term thing ideally.

It'd be one hell of a story if Connor Ingram wound up being the missing piece in Edmonton

Sabres on the ice for morning skate/practice and Bo Byram is with the gang. Zach Benson, who is not part of the game group tonight as well, is not out there. Like Power a couple days ago, he hopped off the ice late at practice yesterday before final stretch so we’ll see.

A seven-year, $63 million extension for Luke Hughes is what we call "the going rate" for a top-level defenseman which is what Hughes will very, very soon be. He's been forcibly thrown to the fire the past two years and handled it pretty well all things considered.

It’s October yet

Which team has the best new #nhl uniforms? @joeyerdon.bsky.social ranks 'em all! bleacherreport.com/articles/252...

Getting mean-mugged by someone blowing a stop sign while I’m already navigating a traffic circle like I’m the asshole. Dude, I’m just a prick for honking at you for being stupid and dangerous

Happy Tuesday, Bills fans. If you or someone you know has any big events planned for a tailgate this year, like a wedding or celebration, please reach out via DMs or replies! ESPN is looking for some fans to feature. 🥳

Lindy Ruff said Owen Power "strained something" yesterday and is day-to-day. Noah Ostlund is still here in camp but is dealing with something and getting treatment that has him on a week-to-week basis. That's why he's not in Rochester (yet).

Year 1 of the current Nathan MacKinnon contract (2023-24): 15.089% of the salary cap ceiling Year 2 of the current Kirill Kaprizov contract (2027-28): 14.977% of the salary cap ceiling The economic landscape of the NHL is about to change, by ... potentially not a little.

Jiri Kulich said he's feeling good and glad to be back. Having to ramp up and then need to miss time is a huge bummer. He loves getting on a line with Jack Quinn and Josh Doan though - he said playing with other young guys like him is exciting.

The Minnesota Wild have signed Kirill Kaprizov to the richest contract in NHL history at $136 million over eight years.