Hudson Fasching and Casey Nelson made their Sabres debuts in a Saturday matinée, and the young Minnesota products (Fasching from the University of Minnesota and Nelson from Minnesota State) did not disappoint.
Fashing was obtained by Murray in the Robin Regher-Brayden McNabb trade with LA last year and Nelson is an undrafted free-agent who decided to forgo his Senior year of college eligibility and go pro. Both had points in their first NHL game with Fasching picking up a sweet NHL ’94 style goal and Nelson recording an assist. Jack and Samson Reinhart also picked up goals. Hudson “Henry the River” Fasching brought all his highly regarded skills to the table yesterday. Playing on a line with the future Captain Ryan O’Reilly and Evander “The Knockout King” Kane, he looked strong and dangerous down low, skating the puck into the zone confidently and bodying guys off the puck. On his goal, he won the puck in the corner then made a B-line to the net going large in front and sliding the puck into the far corner. It was a veteran move and looked great from section 319.
The Sabres were down-2-0 early but the young guns could just not be contained. Sam Reinhart tied her up by banging home a rebound and then in the third Magic Hands did his best OV imitation and sniped a wrister far side under the goalie’s glove hand for the game winner. His goal was incredible to watch. As he skated the puck into the zone he was one-on-one with the defenseman. Then, with a quick stick handle and the threat of a dangle, he juked right and fired against the grain to smoke the helpless Winnipeg netminder. Seriously guys, we have a future All-Star in Eich, he is just that good.
I personally would not want to see Buffalo rolling into town with our offense firing on all cylinders.
With the warm weather here, it’s a shame that we are out of playoff contention. With a healthy lineup and 3 legit scoring lines, we are a threat and are going to spoil a few teams’ playoff chances. I personally would not want to see Buffalo rolling into town with our offense firing on all cylinders. I think Bylsma deserves a lot of credit, and Tim Murray too, for having a vision and not shying away from executing a plan. It was definitely hard to watch last year, but the moves have, in my mind, paid dividends. The only question I think we can legitimately ask Murray is about Robin Lehner; but in fairness, he has been injured basically all season. The question is, is this an injury prone player? But questions aside, I do like the way Ocho-Cinco has stepped up and provided solid goaltending in Lenher’s absence.
I like this team and I think if we can add one more veteran stay at home defenseman and maybe a top tier goaltender, we have a playoff team, no doubt about it. Our young talent has to be close or at the top in all the league. We have some solid defensemen now, with Jake McCabe, Mark Pysyk and now Casey Nelson added to the lineup (I don’t think I need to tout Risto anymore). These are guys that we can build on and next year is going to be a lot of fun. Hopefully playoff hockey will return to Buffalo after a 5-year absence.
Go SABRES!