Video of Tage Thompson Injury

Tage Thompson left Monday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens with an injury and did not return, leaving the Buffalo Sabres with big shoes to fill. Thompson has been Buffalo’s best offensive player through the first 16 games of the season, registering 11 goals and 18 points. He took one shift in the second period before heading down the tunnel with a reported lower-body injury.

The Sabres are not holding a practice on Tuesday, meaning we won’t know the extent of the injury until after Wednesday’s practice. The NHL uses the vague term “lower body” in its injury reporting lexicon, which doesn’t help us pinpoint exactly what happened to Thompson.

Nothing obvious occurred during the game that hinted at what caused Tage Thompson to miss the rest of the game. Suddenly, Dylan Cozens was taking shifts in his spot on the top line. The last time we saw Thompson was during the team’s second shift of the second period, which lasted 1:07.

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Thompson’s Last Shift

The average shift time for a forward is usually between 40-50 seconds, so it’s not like he took a bad hit or awkward tumble that caused him to end his shift early and skate to the bench. Thompson established offensive zone time with his linemates JJ Peterka and Alex Tuch as he battled along the boards and to the front of the net during the cycling of the puck.

The initial zone dump-in was clean and Jacob Bryson made a nice pinch to get to the puck first and send it around the boards. Thompson was the next one on it, winning the board battle and Owen Power sent the puck back around the wall.

The Canadiens flipped the puck out into the neutral zone, causing the Sabres to regroup. Power found Thompson who passed it to Tuch for another clean zone entry. Thompson then waited as Tuch and Bryson attempted to feed him the puck on his strong side.

The puck flipped on him a bit, forcing him to settle it and battle through a couple of checkers along the wall. Tuch swung by to help, causing an awkward collision between Thompson, Tuch, and Montreal’s David Savard, who lost his stick.

Thompson seemed undeterred by this, as he spun around and headed straight to the front of the net with the puck in Peterka’s control. Thompson bumped with Savard and eventually spun off him to accept the pass behind the net.

He fed Tuch for a shot attempt, but Tuch couldn’t handle the pass and the Canadiens lifted the puck out of the zone and down the ice. This is where Thompson headed off, seemingly for a normal change after a long shift.

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Tage Thompson Injury

The video shows us these couple of battles along the wall, as well as Thompson’s willingness to go to the front of the net toward the end of his shift. In none of these instances were there any signs of Thompson laboring, favoring, or something seeming “off”.

Lower-body would indicate something foot, ankle, knee, or potentially groin or hip-related. His skating appeared to be fine, although there was no reason for any significant burst of speed. His stop-and-go and edge work also looked okay.

Thompson was his usual self in the first period, but perhaps something was lingering or bothering him. The Sabres’ even-strength attack and powerplay are centered around him, so the hope is that it’s a matter of days, not weeks, for Thompson to heal.

In the meantime, Dylan Cozens and Peyton Krebs will have to step up in a big way to keep the Sabres afloat.

Update: Thompson, Luukkonen, Samuelsson Injury Updates from Sabres Practice