Samuelsson, Zellweger exit early in preseason win over Blue Jackets

Injuries to defensemen Mattias Samuelsson and Olen Zellweger clouded an otherwise positive night for the Buffalo Sabres, who defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-1 in a preseason contest at KeyBank Center on Tuesday.

Zellweger was hit hard by Columbus’ Carson Soucy with 1:35 to go in the second period and did not return for the third. Samuelsson blocked a shot earlier that period and took two more shifts – the second totaling just eight seconds – before heading to the locker room for the rest of the game.

Head coach Lindy Ruff had no updates postgame on either of the D-men, whose absences forced Buffalo to roll with just four blueliners in the third. Ruff said Zellweger entered concussion protocol, while Samuelsson will continue to be evaluated Wednesday.

And after giving his thoughts on the hit Zellweger took – which seemed to bare the most impact on the defenseman when he hit the ice afterwards – Ruff added: “I liked our response to the whole thing.”

That response included Beck Malenstyn dropping the mitts to fight Soucy in the third period, while other Sabres – Sam Carrick, Peyton Krebs and Louis Crevier, to name a few – engaged in multiple net-front scrums against a scrappy Columbus team.

“You never like to see that, especially in a preseason game,” said Josh Norris. “(But) sometimes things get out of hand, and we just stick up for each other.”

The Sabres put together a dominant performance in spite of the injuries, scoring three times in the second period and twice in the third to trounce Columbus’ AHL-heavy lineup. It was one of the few NHL veterans in the Blue Jackets’ lineup, however, who kept the game close for the first 30 minutes – Cam Talbot, donning his ninth sweater across a 14-year career, made 17 saves on 17 straight Sabres shots to keep the score leveled until the 9:48 mark of the second period.

Enter Norris.

“Yeah, I think I just got his head and said that he was playing really well, and then he wasn't,” Norris joked postgame before complimenting Talbot, his former teammate in Ottawa. “I thought we just hit our foot on the on the pedal, and eventually … we knew one was going to go in and it did, and then just kind of broke through.”

Norris’ goal preceded two Noah Ostlund goals in the span of 28 seconds, both of which were assisted by Zach Benson – more evidence that the two of them on a line with Jack Quinn is too talented to break up.

“They skated well, they drove the inside,” Ruff said. “If you do the right things, you get rewarded, and I thought they did a lot of good things in the game.”

The second-period scoring frenzy swung the game in Buffalo’s favor, injecting some confidence into likely the same group that will take the ice next Thursday in Columbus, albeit against a very different-looking Blue Jackets team.

“That's how you how you should handle these games – you don't really care about who’s on the other team,” Ostlund said. “You’ve got to work on your details and get going quick.”

Connor Timmins made it a 4-0 game 3:53 into the third period before Tage Thompson tied a bow on Buffalo’s scoring with 5:28 to go in the contest. Columbus’ Corson Ceulemans tucked one against Colten Ellis – who took over Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s crease for the final frame – with 3:41 left to rob Buffalo’s tandem of a shared shutout.

“There’s a lot of things I thought we needed to work on,” Ruff said. “I thought puck movement, our breaking out of the zone, (we) really focused on that, and I think our puck movement was really good. I think the pace of our play was really good. That led to a lot of great opportunities.”

Here’s more from Tuesday night’s win.

Second line success

Ruff has united a triad of natural centers in McLeod, Norris and Helenius to anchor Buffalo’s second line, and it’s working.

The brilliant shift leading to Norris’ ice-breaking goal in the second period had each linemate’s fingerprints on it, from McLeod’s hard work on the boards to Helenius’ vision on the puck. The three hemmed the Blue Jackets deep in their defensive zone for upwards of a minute before Helenius dished a pass to Owen Power, who then found Norris at the right circle for the opening tally.

Norris has glowing reviews for Helenius’ play thus far.

“He’s super talented. … Anytime you play with a smart player – (McLeod) too – it just makes it easy, makes it pretty simple out there,” Norris said. “For a guy his age, (Helenius) is a special player.”

The combination of McLeod, Norris and Helenius becomes all the more interesting when you consider the fact that the three were drafted – and have played most of their careers – as centermen.

That’s the issue – a positive one, at that – you run into when you’ve got the deepest center group you’ve ever coached, as per Ruff.

“We’ve got nine centermen. It’s a coach's gift,” Ruff said back on the second day of training camp. “On paper it says left, right, center, but I think on the ice a lot of times down low, you might find (McLeod) right away, and our centerman that's with him will be filling on the wing.”

Benson, Ostlund, Quinn continue to impress

It was the first game action for Ruff’s newly formed third line, but it was the same old offensive onslaught that Benson, Ostlund and Quinn have brought to training camp every day.

The line generated some buzz in Saturday’s intrasquad scrimmage, and it withstood the test of outside competition on Tuesday – namely with Ostlund’s two quick strikes in the middle period.

“I think all three of us just read the game at a really high level, and I think you can see that out there,” Benson said. “(It’s) just knowing where each other are going to be and knowing each other's game.”

The tangible example of that preceded Ostlund’s first goal – he floated a nifty feed to Benson in the slot, and after Benson’s deflection on the puck nailed the crossbar, Ostlund came streaking in tow to finish off the play.

Those are the types of plays to expect from Ostlund, per his linemates.

“(You) always have to be ready when he's on the ice,” Benson said.

Despite sharing the ice for the least amount of time – just 7:09, largely due to the penalty-riddled nature of the game – the third line had the most scoring chances for (six) of any Buffalo line, and was the only line to not allow a scoring chance against, per Natural Stat Trick.

Keeping their cool

Goals weren’t the only thing clogging the box score on Tuesday – 42 minutes of penalties were given out between the two squads, with 24 of those coming from roughing or fighting calls.

Much of that, at least on Buffalo’s end, came after the Soucy hit on Zellweger. But even playing against an inexperienced squad (when it comes to NHL hockey) can be good practice for the Sabres, who overcame Columbus’ youthful feistiness to preserve the win.

“I thought we made a lot of plays. I thought we obviously controlled most of the play,” Norris said. “And I think I really liked (Malenstyn) sticking up for (Zellweger). Obviously, hope he's okay.”

Malenstyn, along with his fight, also laid a big hit on Soucy just over six minutes into the third period, which left Soucy favoring his arm (though he played the rest of the contest). Both teams combined for 49 hits, and Buffalo’s 21 hits on Tuesday were a jump from Monday’s 16 against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Timmins finds the twine

Buffalo’s fourth goal was due to a connection between two players at the top and bottom of the Sabres’ 2025-26 scoring – Thompson (40 goals) dished a puck to Timmins (zero goals), who snuck behind Columbus’ defense and roofed a puck on his backhand to cushion the lead.

Timmins was one of the four defensemen available for the third period, taking 12 shifts in the final 20 minutes and finishing with 22:19 total ice time, which would have stood as his fifth-most minutes played in a game last season.

Postgame interviews

Up next

The Sabres will play their second and final road preseason contest when they visit the Detroit Red Wings for a 7 p.m. puck drop on Thursday.