Sabres notes: Zach Benson’s goal? ‘Get booed in 31 arenas … I love it’
When the whistle blows, Zach Benson’s mouth is always running.
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Four of Zach Benson's six goals this season have been game winners for Buffalo. Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
Late in the Buffalo Sabres’ 4-2 win over Montreal, Zach Benson took an elbow to the face from Canadiens forward Zachary Bolduc. He immediately went down in pain and grabbed at his face. Within a few seconds, the sellout crowd at the Bell Centre started booing Benson. As he got up and skated to the bench, the boos continued to get louder.
The next day, after the Sabres practiced in Long Island, Benson cracked a wide smile when asked what he thought about that reaction from the Montreal crowd.
“Oh, I love it,” Benson said. “I love it. Any time you get booed, I enjoy that. That’s part of my game. My goal is to get booed in 31 arenas. I’ve been booed in a couple now. I enjoy that part of the game.”
Benson is just 20, but he’s in his third NHL season. That’s been plenty of time for him to start to form a reputation around the league. He’s 5 feet 10 and 170 pounds, but that doesn’t stop him from being one of Buffalo’s most aggressive forecheckers. When the whistle blows, Benson’s mouth is always running, and rarely does he skate away from a crowd without shoving someone.
Atmospheres like the one in Montreal on Thursday only further fuel that part of Benson’s game. The Sabres and Canadiens are starting to show some of the early signs of a rivalry. These meaningful games in the standings have brought out a lot of scrums and trash talking. And Benson’s been right in the middle of it.
“I love it,” Benson said. “It’s almost like playoff hockey in a sense. That’s what you live for. That’s when I think my game elevates and gets better. I love it and take pride in that.”
Benson wasn’t out there just to get under the other team’s skin, either. He ended up scoring the game-winning goal and one that highlighted another quality that makes him so difficult to play against.
“He undercut his guy and got to the net, he hit one post then he hit another post,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff explained. “Then he out-battled and ended up putting a third rebound in. Just one hell of an effort. … He’s done a great job being that guy that can get there.”
Added Benson: “I feel like those are the goals that go in when games matter. Just being there and being a presence and eventually just whacking it home.”
His playmaking showed up Saturday afternoon against the Islanders. With the Sabres leading 1-0, Benson carried the puck in the offensive zone, broke toward the net and banked a pass to Tage Thompson for a goal.
Scoring consistently has been a struggle for Benson this season. After dealing with an early-season facial injury and then a lower-body injury shortly after that, Benson has played in 38 of the Sabres’ 51 games. He has six goals and 18 assists. But four of those goals are game winners. He also has the third-most high-danger chances per 60 minutes and fourth-highest individual expected goals per 60 on the team. Generating chances isn’t the issue. It’s finishing those chances.
But even without a ton of goal-scoring production, Benson’s value away from the puck is clear. The Sabres have a five-on-five goals-against average of 1.82 when Benson is on the ice. That’s the best mark on the team. The Sabres have 61 percent of the goals during Benson’s five-on-five minutes, also the best mark on the team. Benson also trails only Josh Doan and Alex Tuch in takeaways per 60 at five-on-five. All of that adds to why teams find him irritating to play against.
“A lot of teams aren’t going to like him,” Tuch said. “He’s a rat out there. It’s really good to see. I think he’s got that Brad Marchand type of characteristic and that high-end skill set, too. He can become that type of player. He’s just so good with the puck. His stick skills, his IQ around the puck, stick battles. He’s not the biggest guy, but he comes away with a lot of those 50-50 pucks just because of his IQ. And he’s not afraid to get punched in the face. For a kid that young, that’s really impressive.”
The Marchand comparison is a common one, because few players have thrived in the rat role more than he has over the last 15 years. It’s also a high bar because of the type of scorer Marchand became.
But it took a while before Marchand became a big scorer. Marchand has one 100-point season, but that came when he was 30 years old. When Marchand was Benson’s age, he was playing his first season in the AHL. He didn’t become a full-time NHLer until he was 22, and he had 41 points that season. He didn’t have his first 60-point season until he was 27. And then he followed that with four straight seasons of 85-plus points, including his 100-point season in 2018-19.
All of that to say, it’s early to judge the type of offensive player Benson could become. But even if he never develops into that level of point producer, he’s already on his way to becoming a Marchand-level rat.
“I think he eats it up, honestly,” Tuch said. “It’s just something that he really takes pride in.”
That was again evident Saturday afternoon. In the closing minutes of the game with the Sabres up 5-0 on the Islanders, Benson got tangled up with 6-foot-4 defenseman Scott Mayfield and was jawing back and forth with him to the point where Benson was laughing. He was still laughing as the Sabres celebrated the win in the dressing room.
Mattias Samuelsson was smirking when Benson’s end-of-game scrum was mentioned.
“That’s just the way he plays,” Samuelsson said. “I don’t think it matters the score. He’s not turning that off. It’s pretty funny sometimes.”
Quick hits
Stats of the week: Only three teams have more regulation wins than the Sabres this season: the Avalanche, Stars and Lightning. And only six teams in the league have a better points percentage. As of Sunday, the Sabres’ playoff odds were about 63 percent, according to MoneyPuck. The longer this run goes on, the more legit this team looks.Quote of the week: Alex Lyon, when asked whether he enjoys staring down players like Bo Horvat and Matthew Schaefer, offered up this insight: “Depends on the guys. I don’t want to get anyone too angry, you know? I’m still just a pesky pigeon in this league. I don’t want to get anybody too riled up.”
Injury situation to monitor: Can Josh Norris return this week? He’s now missed more than a week with injured ribs. Ruff said he was week-to-week but thought there was a chance he could join the team late last week. That might mean he could have a chance to get back this week.
The week ahead: The Sabres play in Toronto on Tuesday and then have home games against the Kings and Canadiens on Thursday and Saturday. Those games against Toronto and Montreal will be big ones in the standings. And they won’t get a breather, either. The Sabres play back-to-back at the Panthers and Lightning the following Monday and Tuesday before hosting the Penguins that Thursday. Then they can exhale for the Olympic break.