Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - In the first preseason game of the year on Saturday, the Buffalo Sabres looked great. But I need to caution you: Because the Sabres are leaving for Germany on Tuesday, they used almost their whole NHL team, while the Pittsburgh Penguins pretty much sent their AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton team to the ice.
One guy the Penguins did play with 356 games of NHL experience was winger Jesse Puljujarvi, who scored all three of Pittsburgh’s goals. It wasn't enough in the end, though, as the Sabres won, 7-3.
The reason I caution you about the lineups is the reverse is going to happen after the Sabres leave for Europe. They will still have four preseason games left against Pittsburgh, the Ottawa Senators, Columbus Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings. In those games, Buffalo will face quite a few NHL players using the Rochester Americans.
There was a lot to like from this game, including JJ Peterka netting a hat-trick and Henri Jokiharju getting a goal and two assists.
To me, the Peterka goals were significant because of the way they were scored.
The first goal came just five seconds into a power play. It was exactly the type of goal this team is trying to learn how to score. They won the draw, Jokiharju quickly moved the puck to the right point to Jack Quinn, and Peterka, Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch all went to the net.
Peterka tipped the shot in for the first goal of the preseason.
His second goal was in quick transition, as Jokiharju made a nice stretch pass to Tuch, and he and Peterka were up toward the Pens blue line at top speed. Tuch found Peterka sprinting through the left circle, and he wired a shot past goalie Joel Blomqvist.
The third goal was, again, about getting to the net and tipping in Thompson’s shot from distance.
The line of Beck Malenstyn, Sam Lafferty and Nicolas Aube-Kubel played just as advertised. They were fast, hard on pucks and physical.
They also scored when Blomqvist stopped Malenstyn on a breakaway, but Lafferty followed him in and converted the rebound.
Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff was impressed too.
"I thought they had a great night," said Ruff following the win. "It’s like a running game in football. They got the puck down low, they hung on to it, they couldn’t take the puck away from them, they made five or six great plays for scoring opportunities, but the puck possession was something that can wear a team down."
One thing we saw throughout the lineup was, as Ruff likes to call it, "hard compete." There were too many times last season where that was nowhere to be found.
The pace of the team seemed pretty good, but Ruff wasn’t at all satisfied.
"I still think we’ve got a ways to go with pace, the decision making, and the trust that we’re going to be somewhere," Ruff noted.
"And it’s not the guy with the puck. It really is the guy away from the puck that has to do the work. If he doesn’t do the work - we saw we had some turnovers and I don’t blame it on the guy with the puck - if we have guys hitting the hole a little bit sooner, we would’ve had better play."
In the second period, the Sabres scored four goals in 2:57 before chasing Blomqvist. They scored six goals on 24 shots before Blomqvist was pulled in just 25:26 of work.
Filip Larsson then faced 19 shots in 34:34 of playing time and made 18 saves.
Neither Penguins goaltender has ever played an NHL game. Blomqvist had a real good season last year for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, while the 26-year-old Larsson just arrived from the Swedish Hockey League.
Jiri Kulich was in the lineup and did some pretty good things, including hitting the post on a backhand shot. But it wasn’t even close enough to make the impression he needs to make the team. Kulich played on a line with Peyton Krebs and Lukas Rousek.
With 27 players going to Europe, I think there’s a good chance Kulich and Rousek will be part of that group.
I wasn’t all that impressed with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s first outing, but honestly, we don’t have to be. He knows what he needs to do to get ready for the regular season.
Luukkonen made 15 saves on 18 shots faced in the win.
Puljujarvi scored a power play goal on him just 1:08 into the game, but it was a tip-in, which he had no chance on.
Related
After having Sunday off, the Sabres will host the Blue Jackets on Monday. It’ll, once again, be mostly the Sabres' NHL team, because it’s the last NHL preseason game they’ll have this season.
Join Brian Koziol and myself for pregame coverage starting at 4:45 p.m. ET on The Bet 1520.
