Don Granato considers the beginning of every season a great unknown. Months of prognostications are thrown out the window. The games speak for themselves.
Such will be the case tonight when the Sabers open 2022-23 against the Ottawa Senators at KeyBank Center.
“The guys, my observation with them is they’re very comfortable going into that unknown, knowing they’re going to be challenged greatly, when they look to the right and left and see who’s with them in the battle,” Granato said.
Tickets for tonight are available here Starting at $27. The team is holding a pregame party in the Plaza, beginning when players walk the Blue & Gold Carpet into KeyBank Center at 4 pm.
Coverage on MSG begins at 6:30 pm with puck drop scheduled for 7. WGR 550 will have radio coverage, including the call from Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray.
Sabers hockey is back. Here are five things to know.
1. The lineup
Here are the expected forward lines and defense pairs based on the morning skate:
| October 13 vs. Ottawa | ||
|---|---|---|
| LW | C | RW |
| 53 Jeff Skinner | 72 Tage Thompson | 71 Victor Olofsson |
| 22 Jack Quinn | 37 Casey Mittelstadt | 89 Alex Tuch |
| 19 Peyton Krebs | 24 Dylan Cozens | 77 JJ Peterka |
| 28 Zemgus Girgensons | 74 Rasmus Asplund | 21 Kyle Okposo |
| LD | RD | G |
| 23 Mattias Samuelsson | 26 Rasmus Dahlin | 41 Craig Anderson |
| 25 Owen Power | 10 Henri Jokiharju | 31 Eric Comrie |
| 78 Jacob Bryson | 46 Ilya Lyubushkin | |
2. The goalie
Craig Anderson will start against his former team. The Senators’ all-time leader in wins and games played by a goalie is 5-2-0 with a .919 save percentage in eight career meetings with Ottawa.
While it will be Anderson who gets the nod tonight, Granato said it is fair to assume both Anderson and Eric Comrie get their share of time in goal through the early part of the season.
“We have two guys here that we feel are capable of winning hockey games,” Granato said. “We want to get them more into mid-season form and the only way to do that is to have some sort of rotation.”
3. The power play
The Sabres’ power-play units have been consistent through the final week of training camp and remained that way during the morning skate:
Unit 1:
Tuch
Thompson – Skinner – Mittelstadt
Dahlin
Unit 2:
Okposo
Krebs – Cozens – Olofsson
Power
4. Youth movement
The Sabers have the youngest opening night roster in the NHL with an average age of 25.0 years, including five players who are 21 or younger in Dylan Cozens, Peyton Krebs, Owen Power, JJ Peterka, and Jack Quinn.
5. Scouting the Senators
The Senators have three new faces in key roles in forwards Alex DeBrincat and Claude Giroux and defenseman Jake Sanderson. DeBrincat (via trade from Chicago) and Giroux (via free agency) joined the team during the offseason; Sanderson was the fifth-overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft.
The trio joins an Ottawa roster that was among the league’s youngest last season, with five of its six leading returning scorers aged 25 or younger (forwards Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Joshua Norris, and Drake Batherson and defenseman Thomas Chabot).
“If we know Ottawa it’s based on last year, and they gave us trouble last year. They did. We had some success against them and then one of the toughest games we had was right here in this building when we couldn’t get anything.” done,” Granato said, referring to a 5-0 loss to the Sabers on Jan. 15.
“So, we know every opponent in this league is capable. They are. I think that’s enough to get ready for, certainly on opening night.”
Anton Forsberg will start in goal. The Senators are without offseason acquisition Cam Talbot, who is expected to miss five to seven weeks with an upper-body injury.
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