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Zach Benson is Buffalo's 'rat' — and he's exactly who the Sabres need originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Zach Benson is the epitome of the athlete who you love when he’s on your team and hate when he’s on the other side.
Even his own Buffalo Sabres teammates lovingly call him their “rat.” Pick whatever noun you’d like: Pest. Annoyance. Pain in the you know what.
Benson may be small, 5-foot-10, but on this night, with the Sabres in the second round of the playoffs for the first time in 19 years, he was a giant.
The third-line winger was Montreal Canadiens enemy number one on Wednesday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, a 4-2 win for the Buffalo Sabres to gain an immediate edge.
“He’s one of the guys that you definitely don’t want to play against,” Benson’s lineman Josh Doan told The Sporting News after the game. “That’s the biggest honor you can have as a player is hated to play against. Those are the guys that you want on your team. We’re pretty fortunate to have Benny with us.”
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Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff chose to start Benson’s line on Wednesday, the nominal third-line group with Josh Norris and Josh Doan, for a quick burst of energy. Ruff was quick to question afterward, though – “Who said they were our third line?”
The number didn’t matter.
Benson and his feisty linemates did.
It took Benson just 30 seconds to draw a tripping penalty on Lane Hutson, and while Buffalo didn’t score on that powerplay, the tone was set.
Benson created Buffalo’s first goal soon enough. He had a nifty takeaway near the benches -- again making Hutson look bad -- drove into the offensive zone, then set up the easiest tap-in of Doan’s life for 1-0 Sabres.
“We’re building together,” Doan said of his partnership with Benson. “You get paired with a guy over and over again, you’re gonna start finding each other. We play the game very similarly.”
The “rat” had the primary assist on the second goal, too, dishing to Ryan McLeod for a 2-0 lead.
“If he was on the other side, I wouldn’t want to be coaching against him,” Buffalo head coach Lindy Ruff said after the game. “I thought his effort was tremendous.”
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The only thing Benson couldn’t manage on this night was a goal of his own.
He came closest to getting an empty-netter for Buffalo, but the timing in the offensive zone didn’t work out quite right against a scrambling Montreal defense.
That didn’t matter, though. Benson scores goals, but he isn’t a goal scorer.
He’s the guy who will do whatever it takes to win. He’ll get into scraps with defensemen who are eight inches taller than him. He’ll crash into the boards, fall down, and get right back up to take the puck away anyway.
Every time Benson touched the puck, or even approached it on Wednesday night, the Buffalo crowd buzzed in anticipation.
He’s still just 20 years old, but he’s everyone in Buffalo’s favorite show right now. If Benson is on the ice, something is bound to happen, and right now, it’s almost always something good for the Sabres.
“That line gave us a great night,” Ruff said. “(Benson’s) effort on a lot of different plays made a difference in the game.”
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