- Zach Benson pinpoints the five-game win streak as the moment Buffalo knew it was a playoff team
- Benson credits Lindy Ruff for keeping the room calm through a miserable start
- Read below for the video, Benson’s playoff numbers and his new seven-year deal
Zach Benson can name the exact stretch when the Buffalo Sabres stopped hoping and started believing.
The 21-year-old winger sat down with Daily Faceoff’s Morning Cuppa Hockey on Wednesday and got asked when his group figured out it was a real postseason team. He put a number on it.
“I think when you really feel is when you get on a three, four, probably when you get to the five-game win mark in a row, then you feel like, ‘All right, we’re a special group.’ Like, you have to be a good team to win five in a row in this league. So, I mean, obviously you get to 10 and you’re super confident by then. But probably the five-game mark of our win streak was, ‘Okay. We’re the real deal.’”
Watch the full sit-down:
October did not look anything like that. Benson described a rink that felt heavy every morning, and he said head coach Lindy Ruff spent those weeks keeping everyone from spiraling.
“Start of the year was tough, honestly. You show up to the rink, it’s not the same mood when you’re winning. For Lindy, he kept us calm, kept us in the moment. That’s really the biggest thing, was just stay in the moment. You look, we string three together. Confidence builds. ‘We can win in this league.’ You get to six, seven, and like, ‘We might never lose again.’ It truly goes like that.”
Benson also touched on his new contract, the pressure that comes with big hockey markets and his work with Shoulder Check in the same episode.
Buffalo had been the league’s punching bag for well over a decade before last season. The Sabres fired general manager Kevyn Adams, climbed out of the Eastern Conference basement and won the Atlantic Division title, ending a 15-year playoff drought in the process.
The run died in Game 7 of the second round against Montreal. Benson was one of the few Sabres who got better as it went, putting up nine points (five goals, four assists) in 13 playoff games.
His regular season was a career year too. The 2023 13th overall pick posted 43 points (13 goals, 30 assists) in 65 games and finished plus-27, and Buffalo answered in June by handing him a seven-year, $52.5 million extension at a $7.5 million cap hit.
Ruff is signed through 2027-28 and Benson is locked in for seven more years. The next job is proving that five-game streak was a floor and not a ceiling.
