The Buffalo Sabres have secured at least one point in the past five games, which has helped them move up in the standings after losing their first three games of the season. One of the reasons for the turnaround was the return of Zach Benson, who missed the first three games after suffering an injury during practice before the season opener.
He would return with an impressive four assist game against the Ottawa Senators and helped the Sabres win their first game of the season. Benson has continued to be a big part of this offense with eight assists on the season, which is tied with Rasmus Dahlin for the team lead.
On Friday evening, the team announced that Benson was placed on injured reserve, which means he will miss at least the next seven days and the earliest he can return is next Saturday on the road against the Carolina Hurricanes. In his place, the team has called up Isak Rosen from the Rochester Americans.
Buffalo Sabres have a huge hole on their top forward line now without Zach Benson
While Rosen takes his spot on the roster, he can't replace Benson's spot in the line and the Sabres are going to have to shuffle their lines ahead of the game on Saturday against the Washington Capitals. Earlier in the season, they tried out a few different players in that spot and with varying levels of success. This included players like Josh Doan, Jason Zucker and even Alex Tuch with Tage Thompson moving to center.
It is hard to imagine that Lindy Ruff wants to change his line of Josh Doan-Ryan McLeod-Alex Tuch as they are one of the best lines in all of hockey. According to MoneyPuck, this line ranks third in the league in xGoals % among lines with 60 or more minutes of ice time.
This will probably leave them only one option and that would be Jason Zucker, who did get some time earlier in the season on the top line. In 11 games, he has four goals and two assists but two of those goals and both assists have come on the power play.
The Sabres know how tough it is to replace Benson in this lineup and the hope is that the injury isn't too serious and he come back after sitting the minimum of seven days