Jack Quinn acknowledged Tuesday morning that he should have expected some soreness in his first game following hernia surgery.
The 20-year-old was forced to miss the second game of the Prospects Challenge earlier this month for what Rochester Americans coach Seth Appert described as “load management.” Quinn skated on his own for the first day of training camp, a precautionary measure before he joined one of the Buffalo Sabres’ two practice groups.
Quinn didn’t miss much, though, and said he “feels great” entering his first career NHL exhibition game Tuesday night in Columbus. He’s even back at his natural position, right wing, and will skate alongside Dylan Cozens and J-J Peterka.
“I think it will just be cool to be in that atmosphere and see what it’s like,” Quinn said following the morning skate. “All of us playing our first game, we’ll have more experience and that will help us wherever we play this year.”
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This isn’t a permanent switch back to the wing for Quinn. Coach Don Granato told reporters that Quinn will likely play more at center during training camp, but this is an opportunity for Quinn to have less of a learning curve in his first competition against full-time NHLers.
Tape from this game will be used as a teaching tool for Quinn, Cozens and Peterka. Without an experienced NHL player on that line, Granato wants each of the young forwards to learn from their mistakes.
“It’s exciting to think we have three very talented, young players like that in our organization,” said Granato. “And I say talented and skilled, not yet experienced. … There’s certainly things they can do from a skill standpoint. I don’t think anybody would be surprised if they scored, but there’s a lot of details that I think they’re going to pick up on just by playing together.”
Lines: The Sabres used the following lines during the morning skate:
Sabres’ lines at the morning skate ahead of preseason opener in Columbus:Peterka-Cozens-QuinnBjork-Girgensons-HinostrozaMurray-Ruotsalainen-HaydenWeissbach-MacInnis-Mersch
— Lance Lysowski (@LLysowski) September 28, 2021
First glance: This is also Peterka’s NHL exhibition debut. A 19-year-old winger drafted by Buffalo in the second round last October, Peterka spent most of last season in Germany’s top professional league. He was a standout during the Prospects Challenge and his skill has been noticeable during every on-ice with the Sabres, but he’ll need to clean up details in his game if he’s going to join the club early this season.
Peterka has committed bad turnovers on several occasions by forcing passes in the offensive zone, rather than opting for the easy, conservative play. Those are the sort of mistakes that turn into goals against in the NHL.
“Yeah, there’s lots of details that he hasn’t had to pay attention too, quite honestly,” Granato said of Peterka. “It’s good that he’s played in a men’s league overseas. That’s helped and shortened his window adapting to the NHL whenever that is. It’s made it sooner than later I think when you’ve gone through that. For all of these guys, the highest end skill, they’re not held accountable at the lower levels. They just get by on their skill, so they don’t have to pay attention to any details and that’s a big part of the process once they try to enter the league.
"For him, he does have an awareness that, ‘OK, I’m going to have to catch (that).’ There’s a consciousness there of, ‘OK, what do I have to adapt to?’ The games like tonight are important for a guy like that.”
Goalies: Granato will rotate veteran goalies Aaron Dell and Dustin Tokarski in Columbus. Dell, 32, signed a one-year contract with the Sabres in July and is coming off a disappointing season in New Jersey. Across four seasons in San Jose from 2016-20, Dell recorded a .908 save percentage. He and Craig Anderson are ahead in the position battle to play in goal for the Sabres at the start of the season.
Dell will start and play approximately half the game before Tokarski comes in.
Power-play alignments: Based on morning skate drills, the Sabres’ top power-play unit Tuesday will be Cozens, Vinnie Hinostroza, Arttu Ruotsalainen, Will Butcher and Brett Murray. The second unit was Quinn, Peterka, Ryan MacInnis, Linus Weissbach and Jacob Bryson.
The other side: Amid its first camp under coach Brad Larsen, Columbus’ lineup for its second preseason game Tuesday is expected to include NHLers Sean Kuraly, Kevin Stenlund, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Vladislav Gavrikov, Eric Robinson, Jack Roslovic and Elvis Merzlikins.
Next: The Sabres will practice Wednesday in preparation for their preseason game Thursday night in Detroit. Casey Mittelstadt, Victor Olofsson, Jeff Skinner, Rasmus Dahlin and Henri Jokiharju are among the Sabres expected to face the Red Wings.
