Buffalo splits up Dahlin and Samuelsson in advance of a two-game road trip to Montreal and Pittsburgh
The Buffalo Sabres practiced at Key Bank Center on Wednesday prior to heading to Montreal for Thursday night’s contest against the Canadiens, and head coach Don Granato decided to tinker with his defensive pairings.
Rasmus Dahlin and his usual partner Mattias Samuelsson were split up, and Granato put together three pairings with left-right combinations. Dahlin was paired with righty Henri Jokiharju, Owen Power skated with veteran Erik Johnson, and Samuelsson partnered with Connor Clifton (with rookie Ryan Johnson rotating with Clifton).
“I didn't like (Samuelsson and Dahlin's) game the other day," Granato said. "We haven't had many practice days and (we wanted to) make use of it. You get an opportunity to try some different things, because we had two practice days in a row this week, and we had two practice days last week with a day off. That's a unique situation. So you're gonna use it to experiment when you can. That's what it was about. Experimenting a bit, giving guys different looks with different people, so if you want to switch during the game, you can. If you want to start with it in a game, you can."
At forward, the top three lines remained the same (Jeff Skinner-Tage Thompson-Alex Tuch, JJ Peterka-Dylan Cozens-Jack Quinn, and Jordan Greenway-Casey Mittelstadt-Zach Benson), with the fourth line consisting of Zemgus Girgensons-Peyton Krebs-Victor Olofsson/Eric Robinson).
Rookie Devon Levi is expected to get the start against the Habs on Thursday, marking the first time that the rookie will start in his hometown Bell Centre.
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