Dahlin skates with McCabe for first practice of camp

Even though it's his fifth camp, Jake McCabe admitted to feeling "jitterbugs" prior to the first practice of training camp on Friday. He had good reason to feel excited - it was McCabe's first official practice since undergoing shoulder surgery in November. Oh, and he was paired with the No. 1 overall pick.
"I was just as excited, probably even more than my first [camp] because it has been that long," McCabe said. "It's nice to be here 100-percent healthy. It was unfortunate last year, the series of events, but it's in the past. Moving forward I don't have to worry about those injuries."
McCabe made the decision to have surgery after injuring his thumb last season. He could have rehabbed that injury and returned for a handful of games at the end of the season, or he could repair a shoulder injury that had been lingering for years. He and the Sabres decided the latter option was best.

That decision ensured that McCabe would be ready to go for the start of camp, which in turn allowed him to be the first to skate on a pair with Rasmus Dahlin. Phil Housley said that Dahlin will skate with multiple partners in camp, but McCabe's veteran experience and ability to play on his off side made him an ideal fit to start.
"I was excited," McCabe said. "The guy's an incredible talent, as we all know by this point. He's one of those guys that's going to push me and make me a lot better player. I'm going to try to help along with the North American game and talk to him as much as I can to help just develop his game on both ends of the rink."
Dahlin said the line of communication has already been opened.
"We talked a lot, so I think he's going to teach me a lot," Dahlin said. "I'm enjoying playing with him."

Dahlin has been humble in spite of the attention surrounding him, and he remained that way following his first NHL practice. While outsiders have him preordained as a top-four defenseman from the get-go, he's come into camp with the mindset of having to earn his place on Buffalo's roster.
"I just think that's a great attitude to have," Housley said. "I mean, I can only reflect on my career, every year I was prepared to make the team. It's a great attitude, because you have to strive for excellence, you're striving for perfection and you're not letting yourself off the hook; you're holding yourself accountable."

The addition of Dahlin has generated excitement for fans and players alike, but McCabe was quick to point out how other additions have already made for increased competition at camp. Players like Brendan Guhle, Casey Nelson and Lawrence Pilut are pushing the veterans as they make their case to become full-time NHLers.
"Just with all our D core this year, not even the six that are going to play every night, but you go seven, eight, nine deep - every single guy can be put in the lineup at one point or another and contribute and skate," he said.
"That's something that we've lacked in the past and it's really exciting that we have that depth this year to push not only all of us internally, but if one guy does go down you know there's another guy who can step right in."
Here are a few other observations from the first day of practice.

McCabe is happy to have Skinner

Jeff Skinner has joked about being happy to play alongside Jack Eichel rather than against him. The feeling is mutual for at least one Sabre, as McCabe detailed after skating in Skinner's group at practice.
"I hated playing against Skins," McCabe said. "He's obviously not the biggest guy, but he's a lot like Sammy [Reinhart] in the sense that he's good around the net, he makes you pay and he competes like a son of a b----, really. It's great to have him in blue and gold now so I don't have to be pissed off every time I go down to Carolina."

Hunwick misses practice

Defenseman Matt Hunwick will miss the beginning of camp due to an upper-body injury, the team announced prior to practice. The 33-year-old was acquired along with Conor Sheary in a trade with Pittsburgh in June.

Sabres bring the tempo

Housley has been teasing a difficult camp since the end of last season, and he and the players delivered on the first day of practice. The roster was split into two groups, each participating in a grueling 90-minute session, and Housley said the vibe was totally different from his first day last year.
"I think the guys really worked hard today," he said. "I mean, it was a tough go. Both sessions (had) a lot of skating after the play, which we're trying to encourage our guys and part of our identity is back pressure and reloading them from the offensive zone of the ice. You could see a lot of the drills the guys were bent over.
"We pushed them to the limit in each drill and then we could see that the pace was going down, so we let them get some water, regain their composure and their wind. It was a tough go today, but I'm really pleased the way the guys responded. These guys are ready to go. They've trained hard throughout whole summer. They know what's at stake, there's competition for places. Everybody's trying to make a good first impression."

Lines at practice

Group A
53 Jeff Skinner - 9 Jack Eichel - 21 Kyle Okposo
92 Alexander Nylander - 10 Patrik Berglund - 95 Justin Bailey
41 Victor Olofsson / 73 Matej Pekar - 22 Johan Larsson - 52 Andrew Oglevie
20 Scott Wilson - 51 Kyle Criscuolo / 77 Vasily Glotov - 46 Eric Cornel
6 Marco Scandella - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
26 Rasmus Dahlin - 19 Jake McCabe
24 Lawrence Pilut - 27 Taylor Fedun
61 Devante Stephens - 38 Zach Redmond
35 Linus Ullmark
31 Scott Wedgewood
34 Jonas Johansson
Group B
43 Conor Sheary - 37 Casey Mittelstadt - 29 Jason Pominville
71 Evan Rodrigues - 74 Rasmus Asplund - 13 Nicholas Baptiste
49 C.J. Smith - 17 Vladimir Sobotka - 72 Tage Thompson
28 Zemgus Girgensons - 42 Sean Malone - 65 Danny O'Regan / 64 Tyler Randell
82 Nathan Beaulieu - 4 Zach Bogosian
45 Brendan Guhle - 34 Casey Nelson
44 Brandon Hickey - 5 Matt Tennyson
12 Kevin Porter - 33 William Borgen
40 Carter Hutton
32 Adam Wilcox
1 Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

Up next

The Sabres will hold two practice sessions again on Saturday, the first of which will run from 9:45 to 11:15 a.m. The second session will begin at 11:45 a.m. Both will take place at Harborcenter and are open to the public.