It'd be easy for the Buffalo Sabres to start getting a little flustered. After three months of nearly flawless hockey, they've shown a few cracks lately. They allowed game-tying goals late in the third period of back-to-back overtime losses, first against the Anaheim Ducks and then in Wednesday night's clash with the Boston Bruins.
If Sabres winger Zach Benson is worried about the trend, he sure isn't showing it. The hardworking forward is assertive in his belief the team will clean up its mistakes.
"We're losing no confidence in this room," Benson told reporters after the 4-3 loss to Boston. "We're a confident team up one, down one, tied. We're a confident team no matter what. Unfortunately it's happened back-to-back games, but it hasn't happened much this year, and we'll definitely fix that."
The No. 13 overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft has been on fire lately. He crashed the crease to score a third-period goal against the Bruins, which marked his third straight game finding the net. He's posted eight points (three goals and five assists) in the past nine contests despite typically skating on the fourth line.
"I want to help this team as much as I can," Benson said. 'I think we've had a good run here lately, and obviously we want to keep it going. It's starting to get to an important time of the year, and you always want to be playing your best at this time."
Despite the loss, Buffalo still moved back into a tie with the Carolina Hurricanes atop the Eastern Conference standings with 96 points, though the Canes hold a game in hand.
The Sabres have 10 games left to fix their recent mistakes, starting with protecting the puck better amid an uncharacteristic stretch of high-turnover performances, before the Stanley Cup Playoffs arrive.
For now, let's jump into the latest installment of our Sabres player grades series after the Blue and Gold picked up at least one point for the 14th time in their past 15 outings.
Jason Zucker provides offensive spark before Buffalo Sabres falter late in March 25 loss to the Boston Bruins
Sabres player grades
Player | Grade (1-10) |
|---|---|
Jason Zucker | 9 |
Zach Benson | 8.5 |
Tage Thompson | 8 |
Beck Malenstyn | 7.5 |
Jack Quinn | 7.5 |
Alex Tuch | 6.5 |
Conor Timmins | 6 |
Mattias Samuelsson | 5.5 |
Owen Power | 5 |
Rasmus Dahlin | 5 |
Sam Carrick | 5 |
Bowen Byram | 4.5 |
Noah Ostlund | 4.5 |
Peyton Krebs | 4 |
Josh Norris | 4 |
Logan Stanley | 3.5 |
Ryan McLeod | 3.5 |
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen | 3 |
Josh Doan | 3 |
Buffalo Player of the Game: Jason Zucker
Zucker will quietly be one of the most important players on the ice for Buffalo throughout the postseason for one key reason: his power-play contributions. He lit the lamp twice on the PP against Boston, which brought him up to 16 points with the man advantage across 53 appearances this season.
The 34-year-old veteran winger is versatile in those important special-teams situations. Yes, he's willing to do the dirty work in front of the net, but his shot is also good enough score from a distance. Both his tallies on Wednesday night came off a terrific pass from Tage Thompson.
There were questions about whether Zucker would live up to his $4.75 million salary-cap hit this season since his bump in production during his first year with the Sabres was a bit surprising — his 53 points in 2024-25 were his highest total since 2017-18 — but he's continued to provide plenty of bang for the buck.
Sabres quick hits
- Conor Timmins returned to game action for the first time since suffering a broken leg in mid-December. He played well despite the long layoff, and provided the expected boost to Buffalo's penalty kill.
- Rasmus Dahlin made an impact offensively but he was on the ice for three of the Bruins' four goals.
- Josh Norris has just two points (one goal and one assist) in his last nine games.
- Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen followed up a shaky outing by Alex Lyon on Sunday with his own lackluster performance, stopping 27 of Boston's 31 shots. The Sabres can't afford for their goalies to go cold right now after a fantastic season from both netminders while sharing the net.
- Buffalo (44-20-8) is back in action at the KeyBank Center on Friday night (7 p.m. ET) for another Atlantic Division battle, this time with the Detroit Red Wings (38-25-8).