Washington, DC (WGR 550) -- The Sabres have called up Mark Pysyk from Rochester. The will be the 21 year olds first NHL game.
Buffalo selected him in the first round of the 2010 draft with this being his first professional season.
In Rochester he had four goals and 14 assists.
Pysyk is pressed into action thanks to an injury to Andrej Sekera. Ron Rolston said, “I had him there for quite a bit and he’s been playing well for them. He’s just a real smart defenseman who skates really well, good puck mover, good defender so he’s got a complete game.” Rolston added, “One of the best parts of Mark’s game is he keeps the game really easy on himself, he’s real efficient and this will be his third game in three nights so just making sure he controls his anxiety and just plays the way he can.”
Pysyk is of course excited, but he really didn’t know if he’d get a chance this season, “I really had no idea, expectations, obviously you hope for the best, but I had really no idea, I was just doing my job with the Americans and putting all my focus in there.” The rookie added, “It’s gone well. I think it started off pretty well, then there was a little bit of a down part midway through the season, but as of late playing with Brayden McNabb, we’ve been playing real well.”
It’ll be a large task facing Alexander Ovechkin in his first NHL game. Pysyk said, “I thought about that a little bit, it’s something pretty cool, obviously up against one of the best players in the world, my first NHL game, it’s going to be exciting.”
That will be Buffalo’s only other lineup change even though Pat Kaleta could come back from suspension.
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