Sabres short on defencemen
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Sabres were without four defencemen for their game against the NHL-leading Nashville Predators on Sunday night.
Sabres veteran defenceman Josh Gorges will have season-ending surgery. Nikita Zadorov is out because of a violation of a team rule. And Buffalo will be without two other regular defencemen.
Mike Weber will miss at least two weeks after having minor surgery for an upper-body injury sustained in a 3-1 loss to the New York Rangers on Friday. And defenceman Tyson Strachan is out because of an infection.
Coach Ted Nolan described Zadorov’s benching for violating a team rule — he was apparently late for a team meeting — as “part of the growing process,” and added the player’s maturity was an issue.
The Sabres scrambled to plug the holes by calling up defencemen Mark Pysyk and Jake McCabe from their AHL affiliate in Rochester.