Buffalo Sabres – Robin Lehner is on a Mission This Year

The Buffalo Sabres came away with a victory last night over the Ottawa Senators. Without Robin Lehner in goal i’m not so sure that end result would have been the same.

I was fortunate to attend a Buffalo Sabres game in person where the team I was rooting for (the Sabres) actually won. A large number of the players expected to be NHL regulars this season were missing from the Sabres lineup. The Ottawa Senators seemed to have a large contingent of their starting roster, minus their best player in Erik Karlsson.

I’m sure that many of you have heard about Robin Lehner dropping some weight this off-season. It’s also likely that you’ve heard he has been doing some training at WNY MMA, as if he isn’t scary enough to begin with! The real question comes down to how does this translate to his on-ice performance? Well let me assure you, based on the what I saw last night, my expectations for Lehner have risen significantly for this upcoming season. He was one of if not the best player on the ice, and looks incredibly solid in goal.

If Lehner plays as well as he did in this pre-season game, and is able to stay healthy, the playoffs should not be considered out of the question. 37 saves on 39 shots, with the two shots going in not being his fault at all. He showed some great mobility stopping numerous high danger scoring chances. The were multiple times during the game that a Senators player was wide open on the off-wing and Lehner had to save the day to keep the Sabres in it.

Other Observations…

Derek Grant was quite possibly our best forward. How many Sabres fans would even recognize his name before this season? I did some digging and saw that Grant scored 27 goals in only 36 games in the AHL last season, wow. Nicholas Baptiste looked good once again, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him compete with Justin Bailey for a starting roster spot. Matt Moulson had some good compete to him game and even won a few board battles. Kyle Okposo seemed to help push the play and made a couple of noticeable slick plays. Tyler Ennis looked like he was still getting back into form, he had a couple of nice bursts of speed, but also could have made a couple better decisions at times.

On the defensive side of things Jake McCabe obviously stood out when scoring the overtime winner. Aside of that I feel he had a solid overall game. Cody Franson had his ups and downs, he had a good big shots from the point, but also made one noticeable mistake when missing to keep the puck in the offensive zone. Zach Bogosian didn’t stand out a ton to me, not as much hitting as I’m used to with him.

Next: Buffalo Sabres Fan Chatter: Preseason Game #2, Or The One Against Ottawa

Thank you as always for reading! Can’t wait to watch the Buffalo Sabres take on the Toronto Maple Leafs this Thursday. Let’s go Buffalo!