By Rachel Lenzi

Copyright buffalonews

The Buffalo Sabres should have a better grasp on the nature and severity of the injury that has sidelined Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen within the next few days.

Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams didn’t elaborate on the nature of the injury the Sabres’ No. 1 goalie sustained when he spoke Wednesday morning at LECOM Harborcenter, other than saying it was “lower body” and that the injury specifically impacted Luukkonen when he was on the ice.

“The imaging is clean, which is the good news,” Adams said. “Just trying to do some rehab and figure out exactly how to get him over the hump. He’s kind of in that day-to-day mode. We’ll probably know more over the next few days, exactly where he’s at, but it’s encouraging, over the last three to four days.”

But Luukkonen’s injury was enough for the Sabres to sign goalie Alexandar Georgiev last week as the Sabres prepare to open training camp Thursday at Harborcenter.

“It’s really important to have internal competition, no matter what, and to protect ourselves,” Adams said. “This is for me, an area, where you have a goaltender that’s played 300 games in this league, he’s played playoff hockey, he’s at a great age, he’s been around the league for a while, that was there that we thought would come in and provide internal competition.”

Georgiev and Luukkonen are two of eight goalies in training camp, joining Alex Lyon, Devon Levi, Ryerson Leenders, Scott Ratzlaff, Topias Leinonen and Samuel Meloche.

“There’s no pecking order,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “UPL, obviously, is the guy we’re looking at to be our goaltender, but in this situation we needed another guy.”

Tuch, Greenway to miss training camp time

Luukkonen won’t be the only Sabres player on the shelf at the start of training camp. Adams said right wing Alex Tuch is “day to day”; Adams also did not disclose Tuch’s injury, but Tuch skated Wednesday morning.

“He may not be out there (Thursday) or the next day or two, but it’s nothing significant, just a little bit of a little minor thing,” Adams said.

Adams also said left wing Jordan Greenway will be out for the start of training camp, after he had a setback in rehabilitation and had a second surgery in July for a middle-body injury. He had the first surgery in mid-December, and played in 34 games last season.

Adams put a timeline for Greenway’s return around opening night.

“But that doesn’t mean he’d be playing, just that he’d be cleared and ready to go,” Adams said. “He’s going to miss a little bit of time.”