Sabres Open Preseason With A Win

Certainly not that it means a whole lot, but it's a positive.  And for a team where not much of anything went right last year, they'll take it.  The Sabres opened the preseason with a 4-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday night.

Goal scorers for Buffalo were Patrik Berglund, Nathan Beaulieu, Kyle Criscuolo and Andrew Ogelvie.  Berglund was one of the players picked up in that five for one deal for Ryan O'Reilly.  Tage Thompson was one of the other players in the O'Reilly deal and he drew assists on the first two goals as did William Nylander.

Lynus Ullmark played the first two periods in goal for Buffalo and stopped 20 of 21 shots.  Jonas Johansson played the final period and stopped all 16 shots he faced.

Not playing for Buffalo were the likes of Jack Eichel, Kyle Okposo, Jason Pominville, Conor Sheary, Jeff Skinner, Rasmus Ristolainen and their top rookie defenseman Rasmus Dahlin.  But I would bet a significant number of them could be in the lineup tonight when the Sabres host the Pittsburgh Penguins in their first home game of the preseason.  It's a 7:00 game time.