SabresBaltimore

That is correct

If it doesn't, at least we only signed him to a 1 year deal and our defensive depth looks a bit better than I thought coming into the season.

Oops. I missed the date I guess. I thought it said it was opening night.

Yeah. Exactly. In hockey the best you get is "lower" or "upper" body injury.

Girgenson is 29. He's 2 years younger than Skinner. And 6 years younger than Okposo. Calling him a slightly younger old man is kind of a reach. He's certainly not a young player anymore, but he's still probably got several more years in the league left in him as a role player. This reminds me of when reporters asked him if he'd contemplate retiring if he didn't return to the Sabres, and he was like "I'm only 29". I think he seems older just because he's been around for 11 seasons.

I love how detailed they get with hockey injuries..

I didn't have Benson playing with Krebs/Rousek on my guess, but at least he will with Mitts and Tuch on the PP it looks like

Oof. I figured he'd play at least the final 2 presason games.

Yeah. That could be too, but then who centers that line? Plus, I feel like Benson has locked in his 9 game try out and those 3 are still trying to fight for a chance to be on the initial 23 man roster.

Talking to a buddy of mine about this, I think this is probably a one-off or special occasion thing. Even with Football expanding to 4 and sometimes 5 days/week, the vast majority of games are Sundays from 1-7pm, so Redzone works really well. Apart from this opening night where all 32 teams are playing, is there a day of the week where the bulk of the league is playing? Saturday nights maybe? Canada does (or did, I haven't watched Canadian coverage in a few years) their Hockey Night in Canada double headers on Saturday nights. So maybe that would make the most sense if ESPN would want to make this a recurring thing. I'd probably swap to it during intermissions if I'm watching the game live. But 99% of the time, I start an hour late so I can skip intermissions and commercials. That's a lot of time saved over an 82 game season.

Sadly you're probably right. Maybe in the final game the drop the 4th line down to Rochester and do the Skinner-TNT-Benson line instead

I've always enjoyed Redzone when I'm not watching the Bills (or back when the Bills were terrible and I was mostly just watching football for my fantasy team). This sounds cool: But with 82 games in a season, I don't really expect I'd watch this much. It already takes up a lot of time to watch just the Sabres. Not sure if this is just a one-off on opening night. Maybe its a kind of test run.

Yeah in addition to finally seeing both of our new defensive FA signings play a game, I'm curious what the lines will be. Benson has been playing with Skinner and Tage. Neither are active tonight. Does he get put on another line, or is he on the roster only to watch from the press box? One has to assume tonight UPL plays the whole game (that may have been announced already but I forget already). Here's my swag at lines/defensive pairs: Greenway-Mittelstadt-Tuch Peterka-Cozens-Benson/Olofsson Girgensons-Krebs-Okposo Rousek-Jost-Biro Dahlin-Clifton Power-R. Johnson Samuelsson-E. Johnson UPL Comrie With hopefully Olofsson scratched instead of Benson and Clague. Although I can see Clague getting the nod over RJ to give him a final shot at the 7th defense slot over Stillman.

Per https://www.nhl.com/sabres/news/how-to-watch-buffalo-sabres-preseason-games-2023 Watch: Sabres.com (Columbus feed with Blue Jackets commentators) https://www.nhl.com/sabres/video/buffalo-sabres-live-stream-6336966456112 Listen: WGR 550 (Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray) Sabres also posted a roster, but not starters yet:

If they do go with Skinner - TNT - Benson as a line to start the regular season, I'm sure it's with the idea that Granato will shorten the bench and put Tuch or someone else in Benson's place if the situation calls for it. IE we need more firepower or need more defense.

Personally I still think he should be sent back to Juniors this year. I'd prefer we could send him to the AHL and call him up or something, but since that's not an option so Juniors it is. That said, he's at least earned a try out. If he can keep it up in the regular season, we may have no choice but to keep him. I think that's a good problem to have. That will complicate some things, but if they are serious about winning they should play the best players we have. The downside of the 9 game try out is it doesn't let you project out the endurance aspects of an 82 game season. Even if he plays well to start the season, we saw last year the ups and downs of a long season on young players. However with Quinn out, and Olofsson off to a slow start, I don't think we have enough quality players right now to discount the possible contributions Benson could make right now.

Yeah. Impressive we won by only basically playing 1 period of hockey and missing so many starters, especially on defense

Well this cements he's getting at least a 9 game tryout. If he can play anywhere close to this early on, he's not leaving

Just 18...

if there was any doubt about Benson getting a 9 game try out, I think that goal clinches it. I wonder how many teams are kicking themselves already for passing on him

looking much better in the 3rd so far...

Cue Whitney...or whatever Skinner is using this year...good effort to not give up on the play

Oof. Levi had no idea where that one was, but once again not tying up people in front of the net

now it's Okposo with Tuch/Cozens. So maybe Rousek was just during a partial change..