The Buffalo Sabres are set to return to the ice on Wednesday night on the road against the New Jersey Devils. It is the first game since their 5-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on February 5th, and outside of Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin, it will be the first meaningful hockey since the Penguins game.
It seemed heading into this game, they had gotten positive news on the injury front with Josh Norris, Josh Dunne, and Ukko-Pekka Lukkonen all skating in practice. Unfortunately, that group doesn't include forward Zach Benson.
Benson left the game against the Florida Panthers after crashing into the boards and would miss the last two games before the Olympic break. The hope was that the extended break would give him enough time to heal up and be ready to return when the Sabres resumed games.
On Sunday, head coach Lindy Ruff said that Benson likely would not be available for the game against the Devils, according to Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic. However, it isn't due to the upper body injury but another injury that has kept him out of practice since they returned.
Buffalo Sabres have struggled to win without Zach Benson in the lineup
Benson has missed a number of games this season due to injuries, starting with an injury in the last practice before the season opener. That would cost him the first three games of the season, and then he would miss about 10 games at the beginning of November with another injury.
When Benson is not in the lineup, the Buffalo Sabres are 4-9-2 this season, but are 28-10-4 when he is on the ice. The former first-round pick has taken on a much bigger role this season and is one of the big reasons that there is a strong correlation between the Sabres' success when he is playing.
For most of this year, Benson has been playing on the top line with Tage Thompson and has been productive, as he has already matched his career-high in assists with 19 while also adding seven goals. He is currently third on the team in +/- at +16 and behind only Mattias Samuelsson and Ryan McLeod.
The Buffalo Sabres are entering a tough stretch of games coming out of this break and hopefully Benson can be back before the back-to-back road games this weekend against the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning. The playoff race is very competitive in the Eastern Conference and the Sabres can't afford to drop too many games at this point of the season.