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Sabres recap and Red Wings preview

September 19, 2018, 10:17 AM ET [174 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Sabres were able to once again defeat the Penguins in non-meaningful hockey games. This isn’t a dig at the Sabres. They have a lot more to figure out heading into the season and as a result they are using more of their regular NHL players in these games. The Sabres NHL ready players were able to control the game against a lot of wishful WB/S and Wheeling players.

Very few notable things about the Penguins from this game. Daniel Sprong is going to be just fine in the NHL. He would have been last year. He’s working hard for takeaways and loose pucks. He’s going to turn the puck over at times, but again, players that actually try to do things make mistakes too. Over the long haul the good will outweigh the bad.

This is usually the time of year when you see random comments about Olli Maatta’s improved skating ability. Didn’t look to be the case when Jack Eichel blew by him on an alley-oop play

On the Sabres end of things Rasmus Dahlin is as advertised. He led all skaters in the game with a CF of 19. This is going to help a ton with how the Sabres want to play. They played with speed and were activating their defensemen. I saw the forwards trying to make more controlled entries and that is because they weren’t always chasing the pucks that were rifled high and hard off the glass.

The Penguins will be back in action tonight with a different lineup which brings different expectations.

Here is the lineup per the Penguins official website.


GOALIES
1 CASEY DESMITH
35 TRISTAN JARRY

DEFENSEMEN
4 JUSTIN SCHULTZ
5 ZACH TROTMAN
6 JAMIE OLEKSIAK
50 JUUSO RIIKOLA
73 JACK JOHNSON
76 CALEN ADDISON
83 ANTTI PALOJARVI

FORWARDS
12 DOMINIK SIMON
17 BRYAN RUST
25 TOBIAS LINDBERG
36 LINUS OLUND
37 SAM LAFFERTY
38 DEREK GRANT
41 DANIEL SPRONG
47 ADAM JOHNSON
51 JOSEPH CRAMAROSSA
53 TEDDY BLUEGER
56 RYAN HAGGERTY
61 JUSTIN ALMEIDA
80 SAM MILETIC


It’s still a pretty bare bones lineup, but there are some things to look for.

We will get our first look at the Johnson-Schultz pairing on defense

Daniel Sprong will continue to get reps.

Calen Addison will get to play against some NHL competition.

Beware of small samples is the only advice I can give with these games.

Thanks for reading!
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