Observations from this morning's Sabres captain's skate:
Newly minted right D Cody Franson told me that he is loving his Buffalo experience already. Franson was signed to his two year, $6.6 million contract last week.
"My new teammates have taken me right in. This is an excellent group of guys", he told me afterwards.
Franson and a bunch of his Sabres buds attended the Buffalo Bills beat down of the Indianapolis Colts at Ralph Wilson Stadium on Sunday.
"That game was great! The crowd was crazy all day long! Wow, that was cool", Franson told me.
I told #46 that he hasn't seen anything yet and that Sabres and Bills fans are the most vocal, loyal fans in the NHL and NFL, respectively.
Needless to say, Cody is loving life right now.
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Tyler Ennis, Cheshire Cat grin beaming ear to ear, stopped to chat with me afterwards.
Ennis just got back to Buffalo and is eager to get started with training camp and exhibition games.
"This group of guys is impressive. The new guys we brought in and the development of the young guys is so exciting".
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Ryan and Cal O'Reilly were two of the first players on the ice and they were part of a five man group that worked out for an additional twenty minutes after everyone else had had enough. O'Reilly's influence is already being felt on his mates and he has only been in Buffalo for a couple of weeks. O'Reilly is a worker of the highest order. His long skating stride and deep knee bend give him explosiveness in all three zones. He will touch every millimeter of the ice surface during games this season. His fast hands and in sync with his fast feet and his brain. Very impressive. As is Cal O'Reilly.
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I have to laugh when I think about Zach Bogosian only being 25 years old. The dude acts, performs and plays like a 31 year old, grizzled NHL veteran warrior. He is so big and strong. Bogosian is a different breed of cat. I mean that in a good way. So confident. I see Dan Bylsma leaning on Bogosian as a Brooks Orpik clone: play 25-29 minutes TOI and lock down the opponent's top line; play PP and PK.
Bogosian and Josh Gorges spent a lot of time together on Monday. They skated drills together. After the skate, Bogo, Gorges, captain Gionta, and the O'Reilly Bros. all gathered in the western end of the rink for extra skating and battle drills.
At one point, ROR skated to the point and instructed Bogo to pound hard, low clappers on the net for the man in the slot (ROR, Gio and Cal) to tip with a D-man patrolling the blue ice. Bogo and Gorges ripped darts at the slot and Gio, ROR and Cal tipped away.
Tape to tape, crisp passes, and hard, low accurate shots on net.
Bogosian and Gorges may work together as a pair. Or it could be Bogo-Ristolainen and Gorges-Franson in the top four.
That's your top four D group. Add in Mark Pysyk as your five and that leave s dog fight for the six and seven D positions.
Mike Weber will enter training camp as the incumbent for the #6 job. However, youngster Jake McCabe will be battling for tat spot as well. Then you have to consider Carlo Colaiocovo and Matt Donovan for the six and seven, too.
It would not surprise me in the slightest if Murray is looking to make another trade right now of a D and a forward, say Johan Larsson.
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I told Enzo that I did a double take when I looked at Cal O'Reilly. Dude is a dead ringer for Ennis. He looks more like Enzo than ROR. Laughing, Enzo told me: " I looked at him too and I think he looks a lot like me".
The blonde summer salad cascading from the bucket, the eyes, the smile. Cal and Enzo are clones. Except for the fact that Cal is 4-5 inches taller than Enzo.
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Ennis on having Ryan O'Reilly as his new teammate and line mate:
"He is such a great passer and a fast skater. We played well together and had fun. I'm glad he is here".
Ennis and ROR played together on Canada's gold medal winning team at the IIHF World Championships in Prague in May.
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Gorges looked his usual solid, intense self in the workouts. He looks like he is finally back to 100%. He smiled in approval at his teammates when they completed drills at a high rate and correctly.
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Robin Lehner looked solid in his net. Chad Johnson looked equally as good in his cage.
Lehner is in excellent physical condition. He suffered a concussion in February while playing for the Ottawa Senators. He sat and couldn't do much of anything in terms of hockey work until June. Since then, he has gotten himself back into excellent physical and cardio condition.
Dude is a monster of a man at 6'5" and 240 lbs. of mean and nasty.
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Marcus Foligno is looking strong and confident.
"Moose" is feeling good now that his hand has healed completely. His skating is powerful and determined. Defensemen had their hands full when #82 posted up in the blue paint. That's where Marcus is going to thrive this season.
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Carlo Colaiocovo is looking good and is wearing #25.
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Evander Kane is expected to join the fray on Tuesday.
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The Sabres' annual gold tourney is Wednesday.
Camp opens Thursday when players report for physicals.
On ice work begins on Friday.
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PK36 and Moose pic.twitter.com/XIw5lVsCeq
— SabresBuzz(@SabresBuzz) September 14, 2015 
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