@boosbuzzsabres
The Buffalo Sabres won't hit the ice for a game until tomorrow night when they travel to Montreal to take on the Canadiens. Buffalo has had a good start to the season with a 7-6-2 record over the first 15 games and only a -1 goal differential that was pushed there by a 9-2 shellacking of the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night.
Although not the youngest team in the league, the Sabres have a young core that includes two teenagers (18 yr. old defenseman Rasmus Dahlin and 19 yr. old center Casey Mittelstadt) and a 22 yr. old captain in Jack Eichel. That core of the future is balanced out by three older warhorses age 30 or older with a myriad of players at various stages of their prime years. The Sabres are about the sixth youngest team in the league.
Chronological age is one thing, but perhaps their play is more indicative of a young team still trying to find it's way. This edition of the Sabres has been inconsistent and although they've not been able to string together more that three wins in a row, on the other side of the equation, they've not lost more than three in a row. Some games they're great (the Ottawa win mentioned above, at Los Angeles and Arizona last month) and some games they're not so great (Boston to start the season, vs. Colorado and at Vegas and San Jose.)
What they do have going for them is a youthful core with high-end talent and some depth that's helping them along and both of those traits stretch down to their AHL affiliate in Rochester.
After losing the first two games of the season (back-to-back at home, no-less,) the Rochester Americans went on an eight-game point streak (7-0-1) and now have secured 17 of a possible 20 points in their last 10 games. It was a run that propelled them to the top of the North Division. The Cleveland Monsters (CBJ,) whom the Amerks face tonight at KeyBank Center, are second in the division just two points behind Rochester.
The Amerks have a lot of skill, a lot of depth and a group of hardened AHL vets leading the way. They also can score. Presently Rochester's 45 goals ties them with the Chicago Wolves (VGK) in team-goals with the Amerks playing in one more game. Rochester also has three of the AHL's top five scorers. Veteran defenseman Zach Redmond and forward Victor Olofsson are tied second for the league with 16 points each while defenseman Lawrence Pilut is tied for fourth with 15 points.
Redmond's eight goals leads all AHL defensemen and Pilut's 13 assists sits atop the AHL. Pilut's plus-11 rating leads the Amerks and is tied for fifth best in the league.
Olofsson (23 yrs. old) and Pilut (22) both came over from the Swedish Elite League and are in their first North American seasons. They lead an influx of draft and free agent talent that came to the Amerks this season and are just two up-and-coming players of interest to the Sabres organization.
Very talented winger Alexander Nylander was drafted eighth-overall by Buffalo in the 2016 NHL Draft and has had a rough go of it in his first two AHL seasons. However there are signs that he's beginning to turn it around with a stat line of four goals, five assists and a plus-5 rating in 12 games. Defenseman Brendan Guhle (2015, 51st-overall) is third amongst Amerks d-men in scoring with six points (2+4) and has an even plus/minus rating.
Those are just a handful of players to watch tonight as the Amerks take the ice for a North Division showdown with the Monsters and Zac Dalpe who leads the league in points (19) and is tied for the league-lead in goals (12.)
Also of note, West Seneca native Sean Malone will make his season debut for Rochester tonight. There was talk of Malone making a strong pitch to make the big club out of camp but an injury squashed that. Malone was cleared by the Sabres and sent to Rochester yesterday.
Game time is 7:05 pm.
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