Buffalo Sabres Fall In First Preseason Tilt
The Buffalo Sabres kicked off their six-game preseason schedule with a 1-0 loss to the Washington Capitals at the Verizon Center on Sunday.
Capitals prospect Andre Burakovsky had the lone goal, which came at the 13:14 mark of the first period.
The teams would finish the game with 25 shots each, and for a fairly mixed Buffalo Sabres squad competing against a generally more experienced Caps group, it wasn’t a bad game.
The Buffalo Sabres had 11 penalty minutes – seven of which were served to defenseman Tyson Strachan after his fight against Tim Spencer.
Nathan Lieuwen was in net for the Sabres, with Andrey Makarov serving as his backup for the game.
The game was televised on MSG in the Buffalo and Rochester markets, with NHL Network providing coverage elsewhere. Unfortunately, I was only able to listen to the radio broadcast, but I was astounded by how many fans on Twitter seemed to be giving up on players – and the team in general – based solely on this one PRESEASON game.
There’s a few things to keep in mind here. First off, this was a preseason game which, by its very definition, is essentially meaningless. There’s no points at stake and it’s not like losing one preseason game can determine the team’s entire future for this season. Second, a good handful of the players in the lineup for the Buffalo Sabres are probably not going to be with the NHL squad this season. Preseason is all about testing guys out, testing lines, seeing who fits well with whom, and eventually deciding where to send players.
Sure, this lineup from the Sunday game against the Capitals had a few players who were in Buffalo last season, including Mike Weber, Chad Ruhwedel, Brian Flynn and Johan Larsson.
But it also had Phil Varone, who has spent most of his career in the AHL to date and saw his first NHL action last year; Vaclav Karabacek and Sam Reinhart, both 2014 draftees; Joel Armia, who just finished his first season in North America, and a few guys who have never played a game with the Sabres organization yet (ie., Zac Dalpe, Andre Benoit, Tyson Strachan).
Don’t get me wrong, the Capitals’ roster had some newbies as well, including Burakovsky, who spent last season in the OHL with the Erie Otters but has a good chance of making the NHL club this year, and Madison Bowey, who hails from the Kelowna Rockets organization.
But the majority of the players on the Caps’ roster were big names, such as Alexander Ovechkin, Brooks Laich and Nicklas Backstrom.
The last thing I’ll ask you to keep in mind about last night’s game: it was played after just three days of on-ice workouts.
Training camp began Thursday with the physicals and testing portions of camp; on-ice work didn’t start until Friday, so these guys had just three days of camp under their belts before this game. It’ll take time for guys to build chemistry and as training camp and the preseason continue, things will start to come together.
Just give it time, and don’t flip out because of one – or even more, if it comes to that – preseason losses. Buffalo Sabres head coach Ted Nolan and his staff said after the game that they were “pleased” with how the lineup did against the more experienced roster of Capitals players, particularly a few:
All in all, preseason has just begun, and training camp is still young — there’s still plenty of time for things to come together. The Buffalo Sabres have another day of on-ice workouts before they host the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night at the First Niagara Center.