Buffalo Sabres: The Kids Are Aiight

Buffalo’s dynamic duo suddenly looks more like a terrifying trio – or worse.

If you showed up at the First Niagara Center to watch the Buffalo Sabres play today – hell, even if your lazy butt sat on the couch and watched the Sabres from the comfort of your own home – you got way more than you bargained for, to the tune of a fast ride in a Delorean that took you back to the future.

The Buffalo Sabres’ 3-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets gave you a glimpse of what next season and beyond is going to look like, as the team rode the efforts of three sensational rookies to thrill the 716 with a come-from-behind victory.

By now, Sabres fans have come to expect some fireworks courtesy of the dynamic duo that rookies Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart have become, and those two delivered, to the tune of a goal apiece and three points total on the afternoon.   But raise your hand if you thought that newly-acquired forward Hudson Fasching, playing in his first NHL game, would have an immediate impact.

Okay – I’ll give you that.  Now, raise your hand if you thought Fasching would score his first NHL goal on his very first shot?

Shut.  Your.  Mouth.

I managed to catch a few of Fasching’s games when he was a member of the Minnesota Golden Gophers, so I had already watched him bull rush his way to the net before – but to power his way past Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba . . . damn.  As I Tweeted during the game, that was a man’s goal, pure and simple.

Welcome to the NHL, kid!

So now the Buffalo Sabres have a trio of terrifying rookies skating with them, and things look great in the 716 – and I have not even discussed rookie defenseman Casey Nelson, who assisted on Fasching’s goal and looked nothing like a rookie for most of the game.  I couldn’t find any information regarding whether or not having three rookies all score goals in the same game was any kind of a record, but as the Tweet I shared above points out, Fasching and Nelson are the first members of the Buffalo Sabres to score their first points together in the same game since Alexander Mogilny and Dave Snuggerud scored their first points together back in 1989.

Next: Sabres Would Be Idiots To Play Tyler Ennis Again This Season

Suddenly, the fact that the Buffalo Sabres are moving away from landing a prime pick in the 2016 NHL Draft does not bother me so much as it would have a week or two ago.  Hell, this team actually has an outside shot at scoring 80 points this season – unlikely, I know, but not impossible, which is stunning in and of itself.  The best part of all of this is that it is the youngest players on Buffalo’s roster playing the best hockey right now, so if you’re a Sabres fan and you’re not already excited about the 2016-17 season, check your pulse: you might just belong on The Walking Dead.