BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Sabres played the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday and despite it being a preseason game, I think the Sabres youngsters got a lot to think about and learn from in this game.
This was a lineup that included Zach Benson, Jiri Kulich, Ryan Johnson, Isak Rosen, and Brandon Biro.
Just 20:23 into the game, the Sabres were getting waxed 3-0. They were turning the puck over constantly hanging Devon Levi out to dry. Johnson has had a very good camp and looked good in his preseason appearances, but in this game, he really struggled as did many of his teammates.
Levi faced breakaways, Blue Jacket forwards were left all alone in front. Coverages and decisions were bad by both rookies and veterans. The line of Tage Thompson, Jeff Skinner and Benson were on the ice for all three goals against. That could’ve really ruined an 18-year-old’s night, but I’m sure Thompson and Skinner were talking on the bench and Benson will learn from that, but he didn’t dwell on it.
Buffalo went to work and Skinner wasn’t going to be denied in front scoring on the power play. That was the first of four unanswered goals. Things were starting to turn the Sabres way as they out shot Columbus 10-5, but as the period was ending, Dmitri Voronkov was battling in front with Jeremy Davies. As the referee was escorting him away, he veered over into Levi and lightly pushed him. Levi sold it and took a dive and Dylan Cozens came flying in followed by Riley Stillman. This got the fans into the game and seemed to lift the bench.
Henri Jokiharju has had a very good training camp and has played well during the games. It’s something that Don Granato has been working on with the young defenseman.
After the game he said, “We haven’t challenged him to be offensive, it’s been be more assertive and what you saw today with him jumping into the play is an offensive way for him to be assertive, but we want this from him everywhere on the ice. It’s closing quicker defensively, jumping in offensively, taking a shot offensively.”
We absolutely saw that when he turned an innocent play into a 3-on-1 by being assertive. Victor Olofsson finds him with a perfect pass and all of a sudden it’s 3-2.
Peyton Krebs is a very gifted passer and easily could center a line in the top six, but he’s not going to do it in Buffalo with Thompson and Cozens here. Krebs told me that he knows his role is to be good defensively, be able to be counted on in all situations and even add offense when he can. He’s perfectly happy to center Kyle Okposo and Zemgus Girgensons.
On Saturday, Krebs centered Alex Tuch andRousek and it was that line in the third period that helped the Sabres dominate the rest of the way. They got in on a forecheck and hemmed the Blue Jackets into their zone. The Thompson line came over the boards and continued the domination and you could sense this young group knew they had this game.
It helped that Columbus gave Buffalo six power plays, and they scored on three of them. Benson converted an Okposo rebound, and the Sabres had come all the way back taking their first lead of the game.
With two goals and two assists in four preseason games, Benson is playing well enough to make this team. The only question would be is he strong enough to play in the NHL as an 18-year-old? He thinks the game like he’s 10 years older and he’s so elusive he’s very hard to hit.
As soon as we found out Jack Quinn was hurt and likely out until around Christmas, the thought was Kulich, Rousek or Rosen would get the opportunity to play in his place. This preseason has been an education for these players and they’ve learned a lot, but they’ve also shown they are not ready for the NHL.
I think Benson and Brandon Biro have shown they are ready. Biro took a Cozens slap shot between his nose and lip and had a huge gash that needed stitches. He got back to the game wearing a face shield because he doesn’t want to lose any of the momentum he has seized so far.
For those of you not familiar with Biro, he wasn’t drafted after four years at Penn State and signed as a free agent. Last year with the Rochester Americans, Biro was their second leading scorer. He had 51 points in 49 games while Rousek had 56 points in 70 games.
Johnson has looked really good in camp, but Tim Murray proved that rushing players to the NHL doesn’t work. There’s nothing wrong with letting the 22-year-old learn the pro game with the Amerks under a good development coach in Seth Appert.
What you have to remember is in every preseason game, the Sabres are going up against NHL players, AHL players and junior players. Too many people think that Johnson should be in the Sabres top four and have never seen him in a game with all NHL players.
I do think Johnson is going to add some good young depth to the defense and I also think he will be a good NHL player when he’s ready.
The Sabres are 3-2 in preseason and have two more games left. I think you are going to start seeing the guys that are going to be on this team like Connor Clifton, Erik Johnson, Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power and Mattias Samuelsson. We also might start to get an idea if this team has improved defensively and will they be able to reduce turnovers. It’s essential if they want to make the playoffs.