Impressions from preseason opener
The Sabres suffered a 4-3 overtime loss to the Washington Capitals Thursday night in a game that was a snoozer for about 35 minutes and then opened up quite a bit the rest of the way. Some impressions:
Jhonas Enroth: Made 12 saves in final 6 1/2 minutes of second period. Did good job standing up and squaring to shooters. Seemed more confident in the net in this game than he had in some scrimmages during the week.
Tyler Myers: Played 21:01, including 4 1/2 minutes on the power play. His 24 shifts were second on the team to Andrej Sekera's 25. Makes up ground with his size and reach but has to watch his decisions. Bad decision to pinch cost Sabres 2-on-1 but Patrick Lalime made a save. "I thought he was OK," Lindy Ruff said. "Washington is a big club. Some of his decisions were a little bit slow but it's a little different speed than playing in juniors. Our defense as a whole tonight was young and they played young."
Tyler Ennis: Was more active than either Nathan Gerbe or Tim Kennedy and Ruff noticed. "He battled hard for a small man. He did what he has to do to be effective to play in this league. That type of effort was noticed."
Mike Kostka: The former UMass defenseman was the surprise of the night according to Ruff. "He was one guy who didn't get himself in a lot of trouble," the coach said. "We had three or four defenseman, including Weber and Myers and Gragnani that all put themselves in a little bit of trouble where a couple situations could have really hurt him. He kept the game within reach all the time and didn't make a lot of big mistakes. It was a pretty strong showing."
Ruff still wants Gerbe and Kennedy to shoot more. Same for all his players. Derek Roy, in particular, seemed guilty of overhandling the puck at times. ... The Sabres were only 21-34 on faceoffs. Kennedy was 4-10 and Ennis was 4-9.
---Mike Harington
