Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) - We're almost a full month into the 2023-24 NHL regular season, and the Buffalo Sabres are still hovering at the .500 mark with a record of 6-6-0 heading into a Tuesday night showdown with the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Sabres have also been bit by the injury bug early on this season with a number of players headed to Injured Reserve, including goalie Eric Comrie, defenseman Mattias Samuelsson and forward Brandon Biro. Sabres center Dylan Cozens has also been dealing with recent injury issues that forced him to miss Saturday's win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
When it comes to Samuelsson's absence from the lineup, he also had injury troubles around this time last season, which proved to be detrimental to the team's defensive group. Sabres head coach Don Granato says while the group may be better off now from last season, it's still vital to have a presence like Samuelsson's in the lineup.
"We missed him the other night in Toronto. You can try to win a 1-0 game, but there's games you just have to outscore the other team, and we had to outscore Toronto the other night," said Granato during his Tuesday appearance on the "Jeremy and Joe Show" on WGR. "[Auston] Matthews had three goals, the top scorer in the league, and [Mitch] Marner had another goal, who's another top scorer in the league. Those are minutes Mattias Samuelson would have been out there. As you guys know, I've called him the antidote at times, because he plays against the top players. We missed him the other night dearly, but we were able to outscore Toronto.
"You can't not miss a guy like Mattias Samuelsson, but we are a year more mature than we were last season, and that's helped."
The Sabres have shown the ability to score throughout the lineup in recent years, and this season is no different, with the production increasing as the games continue.
"We want to have scoring depth," Granato said with Jeremy White and Joe DiBiase. "We're still the youngest team in the league, believe it or not. We've made a commitment that we're going to make sure we're developing within, and giving these guys time to do that. When it all does come together, we'll have some very impressive depth of scoring. We'll have three lines of scoring."
When it comes to the team's excitement for new challenges, Granato says when coming up against good teams like the Hurricanes on Tuesday night, they can't over look the little things.
"We've had our trouble with thinking sometimes we're better than we are, and you don't need to pay attention to details, which everybody does," he said. "And this happens around the league, I don't mean to be slamming our guys by any mean, that's almost human nature. You take somebody lightly, and you realize when the puck drops, you should have done that. And it happens. Every night when you watch NHL games, it happens. That's how the upsets happen. These are the games you know you have to be ready for, so it's another good challenge for us."
Hear more from Granato's appearance during the "Jeremy and Joe Show" available in the player below:
