Sabres Preseason Report
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 10:49 pm by Mike
Since the Sabres have now played two preseason games, I thought it would be nice to summarize the major details from those games and offer some comments on the team as a whole and a few individual players.
Buffalo Sabres at Toronto Maple Leafs
The Sabres first preseason game was on Monday, just three days after veteran players showed up for training camp. To no surprise, WGR’s Paul Hamilton reported afterward that the veterans looked pretty rusty.
Game Result: 7 – 4 L
The players that contributed to the score include:
- Zagrapan – 1G, 2A
- MacArthur – 2A
- Hecht – 1G
- Gogulla – 1G
- Mancari – 1G
- Kotalik – 1A
- Sekera – 1A
- Spacek – 1A
- Stafford – 1A
Though I didn’t listen to the game, Zagrapan’s three points are impressive. Zagrapan was a first round selection in 2005 (the year after Stafford) and played for Rochester last season amassing 40 points. I would say that he has an outside chance of making the team, but if he keeps performing as he did the first game, those odds could improve. Right now Hockey’s Future has ranked Zagrapan as our 16th overall prospect.
Buffalo Sabres at Montreal Canadians
This game was selected as the Hockeyville 08 game and was played in a small arena holding only 1,200 people in a town in Quebec, voted Canada’s best hockey town. Though reported that only NHL Network would cover the game, MSG ended up picking it up. Reports got out a bit late though and I didn’t find out until there was only 56 seconds left in the game. I listened to most of the game on WGR, but was lucky enough to at least see the replays of the Sabres goals.
Game Result: 3 – 2 L
The two goals were scored by Derek Roy and Nathan Gerbe. I don’t have details on the assists. The Sabres dressed the following players:
Offensive Lineup
LW – C – RW
(40) Gogulla – (41) MacArthur – (21) Stafford
(24) Darche – (19) Connolly – (29) Pominville
(42) Gerbe – (9) Roy – (61) Afinogenov
(17) Gragnani – (58) Kennedy – (25) Mancari
Defensive Lineup
(5) Lydman – (10) Tallinder
(34) Butler – (33) Card
(4) Weber – (38) Paetsch
Goaltending
(40) Lalime
(53) Dennis
Montreal scored the first three goals. Roy scored the first for the Sabres, followed by Nathan Gerbe. Both goals were pretty nice, but I was a bit more impressed by Gerbe’s rocket shot that went top shelf. I consider Gerbe one of the top offensive prospects and can’t wait to see him on the team. I’m glad to see him have some success. Based on the roster situation, Gerbe is still a long shot to make the squad out of training camp.
Other Notes
After the first game, the Sabres cut eight players and sent them back to their minor league teams for further development. The players included Luke Adam, Paul Byron, Tyler Ennis, Jacob Lagace, T.J. Brennan, Nick Crawford, Drew Schiestel, and Jordon Southorn.