3 pressing questions for the Buffalo Sabres final two preseason games
By Sion Fawkes
The first of the Buffalo Sabres final two preseason games commences tonight when they visit Columbus and take on the Blue Jackets.
The Buffalo Sabres have made it to their final two preseason contests, and they will face a Columbus Blue Jackets team playing the likes of Patrik Laine, Johnny Gaudreau, and other top-end NHL talent. Therefore, if you want a preseason game that may carry the feel of something you will see in the regular season, tonight’s outing is one you should be tuning in for.
With one week to go before the NHL regular season starts, however, there is also a plethora of questions that all 32 teams must answer, and the Sabres are no exception. Below, you will cross three more of the most burning as an extension of last week’s edition, including what the defensive rotation may look like, along with how Zach Benson will fare in what will be his fifth preseason game.
Finally, we will ask ourselves whether Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen can finally pass a big test. And this test, despite it being the preseason, has a lot riding on it.
3 more questions the Buffalo Sabres must answer
1 – What will the defensive rotation look like?
Tonight, we will see Erik Johnson and Connor Clifton take the ice in a Buffalo Sabres uniform for the first time. With Clifton having spent ample time lining up beside Rasmus Dahlin, we may get our first look at the pairing in tonight’s contest. This will be uncharted territory for both blueliners, as Dahlin often found himself beside Mattias Samuelsson, who has been taking practice reps with Johnson.
Update: Erik Johnson WILL NOT be in the lineup tonight, as reported by Lance Lysowski of Buffalo News:
Erik Johnson had some “aggravation” and wanted to play through it, according to Don Granato, but the decision was made to rest him against CBJ.
— Lance Lysowski (@LLysowski) October 4, 2023
Henri Jokiharju will be in the lineup in Columbus.
The rotation could give us an idea of what it will look like when the Sabres square off vs. the New York Rangers next week when the regular season commences. Or, the look we’ve seen in camp could be one that head coach Don Granato ends up using sporadically or as a secondary lineup.
We know what Dahlin and Samuelsson can do when lined up alongside one another, but we also know that the latter is injury-prone. Therefore, experimenting with different rotations makes sense with a pair of newcomers to the Blue and Gold.