“I Feel Pretty Good” | Buffalo Sabres Captain Kyle Okposo Returns To Practice After Injury

“I Feel Pretty Good” | Buffalo Sabres Captain Kyle Okposo Returns To Practice After Injury

How did it feel out there for you uh I felt pretty good um let’s see how I respond uh tonight and tomorrow and and kind of go from there so um just trying to trying to get back into it and have no hesitation out there are you back a

Little earlier than maybe you thought you’d be um not really I mean it’s it’s still um still have to kind of figure things out but you know as far as practice goes um no hesitation kind of jumping in and uh um you know just have to make sure

I’m I’m comfortable in in all situations out there so if you’re not in tomorrow you’re pretty confident about Thursday Saturday that range somewhere around there we’ll see I I think that’s probably pretty safe um but like I said I got to see how I respond tonight uh it

Was a pretty good push today try and test it and then and go from there so did you you finished the game obviously and then did you start feeling it after or how did that go I felt it I felt it when I um not actually when I did it it

Was weird uh I jumped out for the next shift and went to take a face off and and was feeling it then and and kind of progressively you know your adrenaline takes over and you just finished the game which is fine and then I knew I was

Going to be sore the next day and I was sore the next day so um had to kind of wait for it to calm down and um just do some rehab skating on my own over the weekend and um you know felt good enough to kind of to get back into practice and

Um you know like I said just got to be smart with it so uh don’t come back too too soon to make it worse what’s your reaction been to the way the guys have grinded through these last two games well I think um two different games um

Well kind of similar actually in the fact that our goalies played really really well in the first period of both um you know and then we were able to kind of break the game open in Montreal and and keep our foot on the gas which

Was great to see um it’s great to see some guys uh have some big nights in Montreal and then you know oie I thought thought he stood on his head against Pittsburgh and um you know that’s a hungry team over there and obviously we get those two challenges uh which was

Phenomenal and then just to uh to get on a two- game win streak is is huge for us and um you know we know we have to go and we know that that we have to keep getting points you know there’s no uh there’s no real moral victories right

Now we we have a home stand here and we need to make some hay and um that was a huge four points that we got on the road so um now it’s on to the next one and and making sure that everybody’s ready to go how much of an opportunity is this

You know you guys haven’t been great at home this year but still six in a row at home is always going to be an opportunity yeah it’s it’s phenomenal I mean you know there’s nothing there’s nothing else you want to try and get back in the race and than a home stand

And um we know that the time is now and the guys guys in the room know you can feel it and and you know it’s kind of time to put up or shut up and and I think that uh you you know I’m excited to uh to see how the guys respond and

And you know I think with oie and Dev they’re both played really well got some confidence and and that’s going to help and um you know try and make sure that the details of our game are good but you know I think our our um the top guys

Understand the situation and and they’re more than capable of of getting it done KY that’s Pittsburgh I know Pittsburgh had a lot his own time but as I watched that game I never thought to myself they’re not competing it seemed like the team was still competing even though

Pittsburgh had the puck they’re still like diving to block shots getting in the way of passes those types of things did you see the same thing that the compete level was still good even though Pittsburgh was getting some Zone time I thought both games were awesome in that

Regard um in the Pittsburgh game yeah you could tell that they were a desperate team you know I thought that I thought it was you know obviously you’re playing against Sid but he was all over the ice you know he was he was a real Difference Maker out there and um you

Know to just play against him and and you know I know they had the two called back but to to play as well as we did in the defensive Zone and and compete as much as we did was was great to see and um you know that’s something that has

Kind of been missing you know there’s games where we win really good and then we kind of take our foot off the gas and if you do that a little bit in this league it’s going to come back to bite you and I think that throughout that whole game in Pitsburg yeah some

Sometimes you’re not going to execute and that’s okay but but guys were competing and guys were hungry and um you could see it you know guys they wanted to make the play they wanted to block the shot they wanted to get a puck out and I thought that that was um real

Positive in the game was that the same reason the penalty kill was good too I know they scored a power play goal but you had killed a minute 52 that five on three uh and did a great job of it is that why the penalty kill was good too

Because of the reasons you just talked about yeah I think you know guys if they wanted to be in the lanes they stayed tight and you could see there was a real sense of objective like that’s a big moment in the game it’s a five on three

And I know that they got the goal but it didn’t affect the momentum of the game and when you kill off a minute of minute 52 or whatever you said of of a five on three um you’re going to get momentum from that because you know you did an

Unbelievable job and um you know for for Z to get that goal late is was just huge I jumped up on my couch and selli pretty hard so um you know it was uh it was just fantastic to see the guys really grind on that kill and then get rewarded

For for their efforts and awesome to see up be get a win like that that um when he really stood tall and and you know the guys were competitive all night did you guys just look at 2024 as a new start it’s like we’re starting a new

Year we can’t do anything about what just happened but we can do something about what we’re doing moving forward I don’t know if you can look at it as quite a new year because you know exactly what you have to do you know we we have um you know four months left and

It’s it’s go time you know and if if it was a fresh start you know everybody starts at zero and zero and you know you’re right there we’re not right there we know where we’re at we’ played you know more games almost everybody else and um you know we know where we’re at

In the standings but at the same time you have to take it one game at a time but we know that we have to bank wins and Bank points and um so we know that uh we know it’s time to go now you know you guys are the only team in the league

That’s never beaten Seattle and they come in and they were super hot and you probably saw at least clips of The Winter Classic if you didn’t watch the game just what kind of challenge are they uh pretty big challenge I I did watch the Winter Classic and you know my

Kids are pretty into it so um they’re playing well they’re playing like a a really good hockey team um they had their struggles to start but they really turn it on as of late and they their strength of their team is that they play an extremely effective team game you

Know they play kind of the same way each line and and it’s going to be a great test for us right away here um to kick off this home stand so I’m uh I’m really excited to uh see we come up next

Buffalo Sabres forward and captain Kyle Okposo spoke to the media after practice on January 8, 2024. He talked about returning to practice after injury, the last two games, and more.

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