BUFFALO – In the press box recently, Sabres defenseman Luke Schenn said he was viewing his son Kingston’s hockey game in Kelowna, British, Columbia, on an app, when rookie Konsta Helenius asked who he was watching.
When Schenn, 36, told him his son, Helenius, 20, asked his age.
“I said, ‘9.’ He goes, ‘Well, I have a 10-year-old brother who I help out with hockey,’” Schenn said on Thursday prior to Game 5 of the Sabres’ second-round series against the Montreal Canadiens. “So that made me feel really humble.”
Helenius, who on Tuesday played his first game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, was born in 2006. Schenn, the Sabres’ graybeard, was an NHL rookie in 2008-09.
“I kind of laugh at myself,” Schenn said.
Eighteen seasons and some 1,100 games later, Schenn serves as a valuable veteran depth piece, giving the Sabres a right-shot defender capable of killing penalties and adding some muscle.
Since arriving with defenseman Logan Stanley on March 6 in a trade with the Winnipeg Jets, Schenn has played just six games.
But on Tuesday, having lost two straight games and fallen behind the Canadiens 2-1 in the best-of-seven series, Sabres coach Lindy Ruff needed to change his lineup.
After 27 days on the sideline – he hadn’t played since the regular-season finale on April 15 – Ruff inserted Schenn for Game 4 and scratched Stanley.
Schenn played again in Game 5.
“He’s been there,” Ruff said. “There’s nothing about this game that intimidates him or brings any fear. It’s a big reason he was able to win a couple Cups, too.”
Schenn, who won the Stanley Cup twice with the Tampa Bay Lightning, looked solid on Tuesday in limited action skating alongside different partners, playing 7 minutes, 4 second.
“I thought he did a great job last game; before the game adds his piece, and gets the guys going a bit,” Sabres winger Peyton Krebs said. “… Having a guy a like that back there, just steady Eddie, keeps the guys calm and allows us to play.”
Schenn called sharing the series-tying win with his teammates “amazing.”
“When you’re inside and in the action, obviously, it’s different,” he said. “It’s funny how up top watching, your heart beats a little bit more actually, I feel like. When you’re in the game, you’re a little bit more calmer, at least try to be.”
It has been a nice week for Schenn. After returning to the lineup, on Wednesday, his his wife and three children joined him in Buffalo. He hadn’t seen them since he left Winnipeg.
“I did the same thing last year where I was gone for a couple months,” said Schenn, who was traded last season to Winnipeg from the Nashville Predators. “I think in the last, maybe, calendar year, I’ve been away about five months, and that’s without the road trips throughout the course of the year.
“It’s been a lot of twists and turns in this year. … My wife’s been awesome and supportive. It’s obviously hard being away and not being a dad there a lot of the time.”
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Legendary winger Jason Pominville, who will be inducted in the Sabres Hall of Fame next season, banged the drum prior to Thursday’s opening faceoff to charge up the crowd.
Wednesday marked the 20th anniversary of Pominville’s short-handed overtime goal in Ottawa that sent the Sabres to the Eastern Conference final.
“I instantly think of the Pominville goal where he drove in and won the series for us,” said Ruff, who was in his first stint as coach here in 2006. “The whole city was, ‘Welcome to Pominville.’ The second thing, we sent him down, put him on waivers and nobody claimed him, and we bring him back, and from that day on, he was one hell of a player.”
Ruff said one of the team’s French scouts once told him Pominville “has the hands of a surgeon.”
“And he was right,” he said. “His shot was deadly. He (was) a complete two-way player, and those type of players make me a better coach, for sure.”
Notes: Ruff on center Ryan McLeod, who played a season-low 9 minutes, 35 seconds in Game 4 after being moved to the fourth line: “His defending has to be better. He’s lost a little bit of his defending right now. He has to defending a lot stronger than he is defending.” … Sabres defenseman Conor Timmins missed Thursday’s pregame skate for maintenance but played. … Stanley, center Sam Carrick and defenseman Michael Kesselring, who skated in the pregame warm-up, were the Sabres’ notable scratches. … The NHL has announced a potential Game 7 on Monday between the Sabres and Canadiens will start at 7:30 p.m.