Thompson Hopeful That His Nagging Injury Is Behind Him

The Buffalo Sabres will start their three-game Golden State road trip against the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday and are hopeful that both goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and center Tage Thompson will return to the lineup.

Both players were injured in the Sabres 7-5 loss to Montreal last week and missed two games with lower-body injuries, but practiced on Monday. Luukkonen indicated that he felt ready to go and the club had to be confident in that fact since they sent Devon Levi down to the American Hockey League before leaving for California.

Related: Levi Loaned To AHL Rochester, Rosen Recalled For Road Trip

Thompson is hopeful that after missing over a week and going full speed at practice on Monday he will be able to get back into the lineup against the Kings.

“Every injury is different. I feel with what I’ve got going on now, I've had similar in the past. It's one of those where I'm better off missing three to four games, instead of trying to play through it and making it worse and missing 10 to 15." Thompson said. “"Those are the worst kinds of injuries in my opinion, because when you have those longer injuries or at least ones where you know a certain timeline you're going to be back, at least you have something you can look forward to. These ones have the tendency to drag out, and they're a little tougher. because you might feel good and want to jump back in, and then you might have a setback and prolong it."

The Sabres lost Thompson for nine games last November and went 3-5-1 during that stretch. With the club struggling to generate offense and maintain defensive consistency, they cannot endure another lengthy absence of their top center, who leads the club with 11 goals.

"When you're feeling good about your game, you never want to be taken out of a rhythm," Thompson said. "You want to be there helping the team win."

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