'I sit next to that jabroni' | Teammates share their Mark Pysyk stories

Mark Pysyk had just completed the first period of his 500th NHL game when he decided to put his mic holding skills to the test.
Pysyk had been asked to do a between-periods interview with Sabres play-by-play voice Dan Dunleavy in which both men would be holding a microphone. Just before the interview went live, Dunleavy's mic experienced techinical issues.
"Mark had his and asked if we wanted him to hold the mic for both of us," Dunleavy said. "Once I realized he was very relaxed about it and he was all smiles, I said, 'OK, if you're good, let's have some fun with this.'"

Tweet from @BuffaloSabres: What CAN'T @mpysyk03 do?! 😂@duffersabres | @Dan_Dunleavy pic.twitter.com/F4Qq9UA2hR
Pysyk has achieved a level of versatility during his 10 NHL seasons. He has played both defense and forward. He scored a hat trick with the Florida Panthers in 2020.
He might also have a future at Rockefeller Plaza.
"He's one of a kind," Kyle Okposo said Tuesday. "… I don't like talking him up. But he's somebody that, he could probably be on SNL if he really wanted to. Like, he's just that witty, that funny. Everything's just - everything's on his toes and it's off the tip of his tongue. It's hilarious."
The Sabres released a video asking players to name a teammate who is the life of the party. Nearly all of them - some more reluctantly than others - named Pysyk.

"He has a real zest for life," coach Don Granato said earlier this season. "That is very, very positive for everybody around him."
We asked players to share Mark Pysyk stories after practice on Wednesday.

"He hid shoes"

The Sabres convened early in the season for a team get-together at a player's house. How Pysyk spent the evening offers insight into the depths of his madness.
"He hid shoes," Alex Tuch said. "Like, scattered them. Like 30 pairs."
Tuch was one of the lucky few whose shoes were left by the door when players began to filter out.
"When everybody was about to leave, everybody's shoes were gone," Rasmus Asplund said. "Pysyk was the mind behind that."
Why did he do it?
"I don't know," Asplund said. "That's just Mark, I guess."

"I got pretty mad"

Okposo talks up Pysyk's sense of humor now, but it took some getting used to.
"The first time I met him, we were going to the Bills game, and I didn't really know him," Okposo said. "He was just being Mark. Not serious, cracking jokes. But I thought he was being serious, and I got pretty mad. I held onto it for like a couple weeks before I told him."
Okposo had a better sense of Pysyk's humor when he finally told him what had happened.
"I was like, 'I was really mad at you at the Bills game,'" Okposo said with a smile. "He felt terrible."

"I sit next to that jabroni"

Dustin Tokarski sits next to Pysyk on flights.
"I sit with the jabroni on the plane," Tokarski said.
The Sabres' plane generally departs for road trips at 2 p.m. As soon as 2 o'clock hits, Pysyk puts his headphones on and watches a show on his laptop - no matter what.
"It doesn't matter if we're in the middle of a conversation or something," Tokarski said. "Two o'clock, headphones on."
With his seatmate out of commission, Tokarski spends his flights napping.
"I'll be sleeping, and he'll wake me up to show me a funny part of his show," he said. "Usually the weirdest thing. But 2 o'clock, no matter what, middle of a conversation, headphones on. I say, 'OK, cool, I'll have a nap.' Good part comes on the show, he'll wake me up."

The hat trick

Pysyk is the rare defenseman with a hat trick on his resume. He doesn't let his teammates forget it.
"Every time someone scores two goals, his go-to quote is, 'It's a hard league to get three goals in,'" Jacob Bryson said. "Every time."

Wednesday's practice

Craig Anderson will start Thursday against the Senators, Granato announced. It will be Anderson's first game against the Senators since departing the club in free agency during the 2020 offseason. He is the Senators' all-time leader in wins (202) and games played by a goalie (435).
Casey Mittelstadt centered a line with Anders Bjork and John Hayden at practice but is doubtful to return from his upper-body injury on Thursday.
"I don't expect him in tomorrow," Granato said. "We wanted to give him a hard push today just to see how his body responds to it tomorrow and we'll communicate that with him now and tomorrow. So, no chance in my mind that he's in there tomorrow."
Coverage of Thursday's game on MSG begins at 6:30 p.m. The puck drops at 7.