Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - As the Buffalo Sabres prepare to face the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night, they will get their top offseason acquisition into the lineup for the first time.
Michael Kesselring had a nagging ailment in training camp, and it just got to the point where he had to rest it to get it better. That meant missing the rest of camp and the first nine games of the season for the right-shot defenseman.
When Buffalo acquired him this offseason in the JJ Peterka trade with the Utah Mammoth, it was thought he’d be a good consistent partner for Owen Power. However, Conor Timmins has been that for the young defenseman on the right side of the ice.
Timmins is a player head coach Lindy Ruff wanted for the team, and at 21 minutes of ice-time per-game, it’s a lot more than I thought he’d get playing in a third pair.
Rasmus Dahlin was supposed to pair with Bo Byram to be Buffalo’s No. 1 pair, but neither has looked all that good this season and Ruff has broken them up.
"I think some of the puck play that has two guys maybe trying too much offensively, but some of the puck decisions have led to more chances against us," said Ruff.
Dahlin will likely play with Mattias Samuelsson, while Byram will probably be with Kesselring.
Kesselring brings size to the blue line, and he’s been really wanting to get in there to try to help his new team.
"I definitely didn’t want to miss with new systems and everything," said Kesselring shortly after returning to practice last week. "I know I was a big acquisition this summer, and I really feel this is the year I can prove myself. But it just got to the point where I was going to hurt myself more."
After Monday's practice, I had a chance to chat with Jack Quinn about his skating this season, and what he’s done to improve it. He says getting stronger in the legs helped him, but he also talked to one of his former teammates in Buffalo about his skating coach.
"JJ [Peterka] set me up with him, and it’s his guy from Germany," said Quinn on Monday. "I changed my stride. I love the way JJ skates, and I tried to get a little bit of that. His name is Yanick Dube, and he helped me a lot with that. So I think it’s coming along."
Quinn has three goals and three assists for six points this season, and being a better skater has allowed him to get to the middle of the ice to unleash his elite shot.
"I think it’s always been a strength of mine to get into the middle of the ice and create shots for myself, but just with winning more races and having a little more leg power through skating, I’m able to get there a lot more it seems. That’s what I’m talking about when I say it's paid off," Quinn acknowledged.
Ruff has mentioned more than once what skating has done for Quinn's game.
"He's been skating really well," Ruff said of the 2020 first-round pick. "The biggest difference is he's coming up the ice and he's really skating well. He's making things happen on his own, and he had a great summer. The focus was more power, more endurance, and it's showing."
The Sabres are 4-1-1 in their last six games, and are 4-2-0 at home, including four-straight wins.
Tage Thompson has gotten hot for Buffalo, picking up three goals and four points in the two-games series against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Alex Tuch has points in five of his last seven games, netting three goals and four assists for seven points.
Alex Lyon will be back in goal for the Sabres on Tuesday. He’s 3-4-0 this season with a 2.61 goals-against average and a superb .923 save percentage.
The Blue Jackets come into Tuesday's game with a 4-4-0 record.
Dmitri Voronkov and Kirill Marchenko have nine and eight points, respectively. Voronkov has developed after being a fourth-round pick of the Jackets in 2019, while Marchenko was a second-round pick the year before.
Ruff knows his team will have their hands full with the two Russians.
"That top line is really dangerous, and 5-on-5, that’s one of the better lines you’re going to face in the league," he acknowledged.
"You’ve got a heavy guy around the net, you’ve got Marchenko, who can carry the puck and got a great shot, good speed. And then they got some D that join [Zach Werenski], so they’re a very dangerous team."
Marchenko has points in six out of seven games, while Voronkov has points in seven out of eight, including a four-game point streak.
Their center Sean Monahan was held off the score sheet in the first five games, but now has points in three-straight games.
Elvis Merzlikins and Jet Greaves have been alternating in net for Columbus.
If they followed the rotation on Tuesday, it would be Greaves getting the call against Buffalo. He has three games of giving up just two goals, but he allowed five in his last start against the Washington Capitals.
Greaves is 1-3-0 this season with a 2.79 goals-against average and a .903 save percentage.
At 3-1-0, Columbus has been much better on the road than at home.
Since the Blue Jackets entered the NHL, they have pretty much owned the Sabres, going 27-16-1-3. In their last 10 games in Buffalo, they’ve gone 5-2-3.
Tune in during "Schopp and the Bulldog" for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 6:00 p.m. when you’ll hear from Ruff, Quinn and Timmins.
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