Three Players Making Their Buffalo Sabres Debut Tomorrow
The Buffalo Sabres have not played a game in over a week. The National Hockey League paused early for the Christmas break in order to help control the recent spread of COVOD-19 and the omicron variant.
The Sabres had their Monday game postponed, but they will be back at it tomorrow night at the KeyBank Center against the New Jersey Devils.
The Sabres are currently sixth in the Atlantic Division with 25 points. They sit eight points out of a playoff spot. While the playoffs look a bit out of reach in 2022, there's no doubt the team is playing much better than it did last season under Ralph Krueger.
The goaltending has been the biggest issue this year, but the emergence of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in net has stabilized things the last few games.
The Sabres game against New Jersey will be one fans are looking forward to because of all the new players that will be taking the ice.
On Tuesday morning, the Sabres recalled forwards Peyton Krebs, JJ Peterka and Arttu Ruotsalainen.
They will also have forward Alex Tuch tomorrow night, who is coming back from shoulder surgery. The speedy, power forward was acquired in the Jack Eichel trade with the Vegas Golden Knights.
Krebs, Peterka and Tuch will be making their regular season debuts for the Sabres; in Tuch and Krebs' case, their first game in Buffalo and for Peterka, his first-career regular season NHL game.
Krebs also came over in the Eichel trade and was a 2019 first-round pick by Vegas. Peterka was drafted in the second round, 34th overall in the 2020 NHL Draft by the Sabres and impressed in training camp and in Rochester with the Amerks.
2020 first-round pick Jack Quinn has been battling mono, and has missed the last handful of games for the Amerks. He's almost back to full strength, but not well enough to be called up.
Fans will love watching Peterka play and he's sure to be playing on a top two line role for the Sabres soon. Tuch will be a top-two line role right away, while Krebs will be put on display as well; the hope is that Krebs develops himself into a first-line player.
As for the lines, the practice today indicates that Peterka will get a chance to play with Tage Thompson and Tuch; while Krebs will play next to Brett Murray and Kyle Okposo.
Faceoff tomorrow is at 7 pm against the Devils.