Asplund looking to prove he belongs at Sabres camp

If training camp goes anything like the Prospects Challenge for Rasmus Asplund, it's safe to say it will have been a success. The 20-year-old stood out in all three games for Buffalo at the tournament, which he capped with a four-point outing in the finale against Boston.
Asplund scored what might have been the goal of the tournament in that last game, slicing through a trio of defenders and burying a shot from in-tight. But what was equally impressive was how he carried himself - poised and strong with the puck, defensively aware and always ready to hit the open man.
It was the first step in an effort to prove he's ready to stick in the NHL, one that's continued through two days of his first North American camp.

"I want to make this team," Asplund said. "That's a good tournament to show that you really want to make the team and I think I really tried to bring my game out there. I think I did, too."

He made an impression on Phil Housley, who said Thursday that the young center will be given plenty of opportunity to show he belongs. That said, nothing will be given. Asplund's forward line, with Evan Rodrigues and Nicholas Baptiste on his wings, is a portrait of the internal competition occurring at camp.
Like Asplund, Baptiste and Rodrigues are still looking to solidify themselves as full-time NHLers. The difference is that they already have NHL experience under their belt, whereas Asplund has yet to play a season in North America. So far, he's embraced the competition.
"He looks really good at certain times but when he's faced with stiffer competition, he gets beat once in a while," Housley said. "I just like the way he's working through everything. He's been a good spark for us."
"I want to contribute to that compete level out there, too," Asplund added. "I want to make this team, so I try to compete as hard as I can."
If Asplund hasn't seemed phased by the transition to playing with pros, it may be because it's not totally new to him. Like several of the prospects at camp, he's spent the past few seasons playing amongst men in the Swedish Hockey League.
"I was very, very young when I did my first season in the SHL," he said. "I was a kid, basically, and I was just happy to be on that team. I just tried to, I don't know, to get used to playing against men. It was hard.
"It's been a couple years for me to get used to that. I've been growing every year. … I've been saying the whole summer, I think I'm more ready than ever to take the next step."
Here are more observations from Saturday's sessions at Harborcenter.

Beaulieu is staying accountable

Nathan Beaulieu wasn't shy about his disappointment with the way things went in his first campaign with the Sabres. He missed multiple stretches due to illness and injury and never truly became comfortable with his new team.
Now, he's come to camp looking to prove that last season was an aberration.
"I let it eat me up for a little bit," Beaulieu said. "This is kind of new grounds for me. I've never really been in this situation. It's kind of my first year in the NHL that didn't really go my way at all, personally and from a team standpoint.
"It was a career low for me and it's not something I want to define me, nor do I want to see the fans in Buffalo, the people in Buffalo to know me that way."
Beaulieu is aware that he, like all players, will have to earn his spot this preseason given the amount of competition set to take place on the backend. He's embraced that challenge, thanks in part to confidence instilled in him by Housley and general manager Jason Botterill during the summer.
"It seems like they believe in me even more than I believe in myself so that's awesome," he said. "They know what I'm capable of doing. They brought me in here for a reason and they kept their word of giving me every opportunity. It's my turn to keep my word and play my game, give this team and this city what they deserve every night."
Housley said Beaulieu's commitment has already been apparent through two days of camp.
"Nathan did a terrific job this summer, really focused on his conditioning," he said. "You can see it out there. He's well-conditioned. He's plugged in on every drill, his focus is really good. There's going to be a lot of tough decisions. He's doing a good job these first few days."

Sunday's scrimmage

With the Sabres set to hold their first scrimmage of the preseason on Sunday, Housley said he had a message for his second practice group once the first session was complete.
"I said to the second group, 'You know, they were talking trash about you guys,'" Housley said. "I was just trying to set the tone. I just want to see some competitive fire, I want to see some speed, I want to see our checking come into play. We've been working on that the past two days, trying to squeeze off people in the neutral zone and they've done a good job adjusting to that, so it'll be interesting."
The scrimmage at Harborcenter is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m., following a brief practice that will begin at 9:45. It will be free and open to the public. The teams are expected to mirror the practice sessions from Saturday, which looked like this:
Group A
53 Jeff Skinner - 15 Jack Eichel - 21 Kyle Okposo
92 Alex Nylander - 10 Patrik Berglund - 95 Justin Bailey
41 Victor Olofsson - 22 Johan Larsson - 52 Andrew Oglevie
20 Scott Wilson - 51 Kyle Criscuolo - 46 Eric Cornel
73 Matej Pekar - 77 Vasily Glotov
6 Marco Scandella - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
26 Rasmus Dahlin - 19 Jake McCabe
24 Lawrence Pilut - 27 Taylor Fedun
38 Zach Redmond
35 Linus Ullmark
31 Scott Wedgewood
34 Jonas Johansson
Group B
49 C.J. Smith - 17 Vladimir Sobotka - 72 Tage Thompson
43 Conor Sheary - 37 Casey Mittelstadt - 29 Jason Pominville
71 Evan Rodrigues - 74 Rasmus Asplund - 13 Nicholas Baptiste
28 Zemgus Girgensons - 12 Kevin Porter - 65 Danny O'Regan
42 Sean Malone - 64 Tyler Randell
82 Nathan Beaulieu - 4 Zach Bogosian
45 Brendan Guhle - 8 Casey Nelson
44 Brandon Hickey - 5 Matt Tennyson
61 Devante Stephens - 33 Will Borgen
40 Carter Hutton
32 Adam Wilcox
1 Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen