One young Sabres winger demands your attention and we all need to listen

Despite what has been a rough start to the Sabres season that commenced nearly a month and a half ago, there’s still a lot to like about this hockey team. For one, Tage Thompson is scoring goals left and right, and for another, we got players like Owen Power seemingly getting better with each game.

Both players have enjoyed excellent seasons so far, and we can go on and on about who the most entertaining player suiting up in a blue and gold (and sometimes black and red) uniform has been. JJ Peterka, Alex Tuch, and Jason Zucker should have piqued your attention, along with Ryan McLeod. 

But others have gotten off to ultra-rough starts, and one of those players is winger Zach Benson. It seemed to take Benson an eternity just to get one measly point, and that occurred just over a week ago against the NY Rangers when he put up one goal and one assist. Since then, he’s scored two goals, giving him four points in as many games.

Sabres winger Zach Benson is making his on-ice presence known

If one constant has been going on with Benson over those past four games, it’s that he’s getting more shots at the net, with eight in those past four contests. In his first seven games, Benson also had eight shots on goal, or just over one per contest, so the correlation is this: When Benson is getting pucks to the net, the Sabres tend to find ways to score more goals. 

You can go ahead and argue that this is a small sample size all you want, but it won’t faze me. Benson’s output has been 100 times better after missing a few games with an injury, and he’s finally starting to show all of us what he foreshadowed toward the end of his rookie season this past April. 

Now, the challenge is all about finding that consistency, and if Benson can get there, he’ll blow past the 30-point total he accumulated in 71 games last year. In fact, Benson is on track to almost double the number of goals from last year (11) if his current trajectory continues since if you adjust how many times he’s beaten opposing goaltenders to 76 possible matchups; he’ll finish the season finding twine between 20 and 21 times.

So, keep an eye on Benson when you sit down and watch the Sabres in action since it looks like the tide is finally turning on what was initially a rough start for the 19-year-old. Zach Benson has demanded your attention when he’s on the ice, so let’s all listen to what he has to say.