After giving Marco Scandella a day off to rest his surgically repaired hip, Sabres coach Phil Housley expected the defenseman to practice Thursday. Once again, Scandella stayed off the ice.

Still, Housley isn't worried about the health of the key offseason acquisition.

"No, I'm not concerned at all," Housley said in HarborCenter. "This is all precautionary.

"He's in a great place right now. I thought he was going to be out today, but he wasn't. He'll probably be out tomorrow, but it's just a day-to-day maintenance thing for him. We want him to feel comfortable when we start getting up for regular season."

Scandella had arthroscopic surgery in May after Minnesota was eliminated from the playoffs. He's sat out three of the Sabres' seven training-camp sessions.

"He'll get his practices in," Housley said. "I'm not worried at all."

The Sabres, who had back-to-back games Monday and Tuesday, are preparing for another set of back-to-backs. They visit Toronto at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Ricoh Coliseum, and the Maple Leafs come to KeyBank Center at 7 p.m. Saturday.

The Sabres worked out in two groups Thursday. Here were the forward lines and defense pairings.

Group A

Benoit Pouliot-Ryan O'Reilly-Seth Griffith

Johan Larsson-Jacob Josefson-Nick Baptiste

Evan Rodrigues-Zemgus Girgensons-Stevie Moses

Nicolas Deslauriers-Kevin Porter-Cliff Pu

Jake McCabe-Matt Tennyson

Justin Falk-Taylor Fedun

Victor Antipin/Zach Bogosian-Cody Goloubef

Group B

Matt Moulson-Jack Eichel-Kyle Okposo

Evander Kane-Sam Reinhart-Jason Pominville

C.J. Smith-Eric Cornel-Hudson Fasching

Vaclav Karabacek-Kyle Criscuolo-Justin Bailey

Nathan Beaulieu-Rasmus Ristolainen

Brendan Guhle-Devante Stephens

Josh Gorges-Casey Nelson/Brycen Martin