Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres will face the Florida Panthers on Thursday, missing two of their top-four defensemen. Mattias Samuelsson is out for the rest of the season, while Owen Power will be sidelined week-to-week.
That puts Jacob Bryson back into the lineup on the Buffalo blue line.
Bryson played 10 games in Rochester with the Americans, picking up three assists before being recalled due to these injuries.
During Tuesday night's 7-0 win over the Los Angeles Kings, Bryson was paired with Connor Clifton, who has been playing well since his return to Boston back on Dec. 7. Both played very well with one another, with Bryson playing 19:17 and contributing two assists, while being a plus-4. Meanwhile, Clifton played 22:34 of ice-time.
Clifton feels Bryson just seems to be a good fit with him on the back end.
"'Bryce' came in, it’s really hard to do, and he was great. I thought we played really well together," said Clifton on Thursday after the morning skate. "Watching him, he’s so smooth with the puck, and his skating and his gap control is just elite. It was easy to play with him.
"We had one practice together and we were really good, so we were banking on that. I thought we were really good for 60 [minutes]."
Clifton also believes they read off each other by talking during the game.
Sabres head coach Don Granato has said all along that Bryson just got into a numbers game. He’s thinks the 26-year-old is a better defenseman for it.
"'Bryce' keeps himself ready, and has really progressed in his career," said Granato following the morning skate Thursday. "He had a lot of challenges last year, and he had to buy some time to get into the lineup this year. But in the process, we saw a much more mature player because of the challenges he went through last year, and the work this year to address those challenges to become better."
Three of Bryson’s six NHL games have come in the last five games. Buffalo won all three of them, and the team is 6-0-0 this season when Bryson plays.
"I think that stretch in 'ROC', for sure, helped," said Bryson on Thursday. "I went a lot of games [in Buffalo], where I wasn’t playing, but it was refreshing to go down there and play some top minutes, and then come back down here with more confidence."
While Bryson has had ups-and-downs this year, he feels there have also been the game where things have gone his way.
Tuesday’s win over the Kings broke an overall two-game losing streak, and three-game losing streak at home.
The Sabres remain 10 points out of the playoffs, and still have six teams to climb over in the Eastern Conference standings.
Last season, the Panthers edged the Sabres out of the playoffs by one point. This season, Florida is 22 points better in just 53 games.
The Panthers are just two points behind the Boston Bruins for the Atlantic Division lead, as well as the overall Eastern Conference lead. Their points percentage of .679 is third-best in the NHL.
The Panthers have a nine-game road winning streak thanks to Wednesday night's win in Pittsburgh over the Penguins.
Since Dec. 23, the Panthers are 16-3-2 overall.
Sam Reinhart’s 39 goals is second in the league behind Auston Matthews, who has 42 this season. His 22 power play goals are far-and-away the most in the league.
Colorado Avalanche winger Valeri Nichushkin is the next closest player with 13 goals while on the man advantage.
In the calendar year of 2024, Matthew Tkachuk leads the NHL in scoring with 13 goals and 19 assists for 32 points.
Florida is one of the best defensive teams in the NHL, and both goaltenders have put up good numbers.
Sergei Bobrovsky played against the Penguins and has played in three-straight games. With that in mind, it would make sense that head coach Paul Maurice would go with Anthony Stolarz against the Sabres.
So far this season, Stolarz is 8-5-2 with a 2.11 goals-against average and a .917 save percentage.
Last year, former Sabres defenseman Brandon Montour had a career season scoring 16 goals and 57 assists for 73 points in 80 games. This season, he has just two goals and 10 assists for 12 points in 37 games.
Join Mike Schopp and the Bulldog for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 6 p.m. EST when you’ll hear from Granato, Clifton and Bryson.
