Pair of Sabres Exit Game with Injuries

The Buffalo Sabres lost a pair of important players to injury during their contest against the Montreal Canadiens.

Nov 1, 2024; Buffalo, New York, USA; Buffalo Sabres center Tage Thompson (72) takes the puck from New York Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock (6) during the third period at KeyBank Center. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images / Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images

The Buffalo Sabres kicked off Veteran's Day in the NHL with an afternoon matinee against the Montreal Canadiens. The two Atlantic Division rivals are jockeying for position within the division as they both sit outside of the playoff picture.

For the Sabres, this game was a chance to push their record over .500 for the first time this season and add on to their recent winning ways. Instead, they found themselves in a back-and-forth scoring affair with the Canadiens. Even worse, the team watched two veteran players leave the game due to injury.

Forward Tage Thompson, the team's top line centerman, played just one shift in the second period. After a minute of ice-time, he didn't return and was out for the rest of the game.

Later in that same period, defenseman Mattias Samuelsson went down the runway with an apparent lower-body injury. Samuelsson, who had been a healthy scratch the past three games, had just returned to the lineup for this game against the Canadiens.

When the third period of the game began, the Sabres PR team put out an update regarding the veteran pair.

Both Tage Thompson and Mattias Samuelsson will not return today's game (lower body).

— Buffalo Sabres PR (@SabresPR) November 11, 2024

If Thompson is out for an extended period of time, it could be detrimental to the Sabres' hopes of ascending the divisional standings. Thompson is the engine of Buffalo's offense, and he's the best goal scorer on the team by far. In 15 games this season, he has 10 goals and 17 points.

Since joining the Sabres as a waiver claim back in 2018, Thompson has developed into one of the premier power forwards in the NHL. He set a career-high during the 2022-2023 campaign, scoring 47 goals and adding 47 assists for 94 points. Over 387 career games, he has 142 goals, 135 of which have come during his time in Buffalo.

Samuelsson has been with the organization since they selected him in the second round of the 2018 NHL Draft. Known as a rugged, stay-at-home defender, the 24-year-old has played parts of four seasons with the Sabres since making his debut. In the fall of 2022, he signed a seven-year contract extension, paying him an average annual value of $4.285 million. He's played 12 games this season, recording one goal while averaging around 16 minutes of ice-time.

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