Sabres coach Lindy Ruff wants Zach Benson to take fewer penalties

BUFFALO – When Sabres coach Lindy Ruff reshuffled his lines earlier this week, he awarded winger Zach Benson a plum assignment alongside center Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch.

Barely six minutes into Tuesday’s 6-1 road loss to the Montreal Canadiens, his second game on the line, Benson, 19, was whistled for holding.

“He was going to be in that top line,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said in KeyBank Center. “As soon as he took a penalty, he just moved down the line.”

Benson’s penchant for taking penalties – he had 30 minutes entering Friday’s 6-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Sabres’ second-highest total behind center Dylan Cozens’ 37 – forced Ruff to sit down with the youngster.

“We’ve talked about the penalties he’s taken, and we’ll continue,” he said. “It will be part of his growth. Part of his energy and emotion has got to be corralled. That penalty … is one that you don’t want to take.”

Still, that energy and emotion fuels the 5-foot-10, 170-pound Benson. Penalties usually accompany such an active style.

“It is a balancing act,” said Ruff, whose Sabres enter Friday’s game having lost 11 straight contests (0-8-3).

Benson has no plans to reign in his aggressiveness.

“I’m not happy with my penalties, taking them at the rate I have been,” he said. “But I’m not going to take energy away from my game to err on the side of caution of taking penalties.

“Obviously, I got to be smarter about it, for sure, and try not to take penalties.”

As a rookie last season, Benson rarely received the benefit of the doubt from officials, sometimes getting called for infractions he clearly did not commit. Overall, he registered 36 penalty minutes in 71 games.

Benson acknowledged he had to adjust to the way penalties are called in the NHL after making the jump from junior hockey.

“There’s definitely a different feel, I’d say,” he said. “But at the end of the day, it’s still a trip’s a trip, a hook’s a hook, etc.”

Benson, of course, is hardly alone in spending too much time in the box. Penalty problems have contributed significantly to the Sabres’ woes.

They enter Friday’s contest having taken 141 penalties in 32 games, the NHL’s second-highest total. Only the Bruins, their opponent tonight in Boston, had taken more (148). The Sabres had 123 minors, the league’s fourth-highest total.

–

As expected, Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin, returned Friday after missing seven games battling back spasms.

With their top defenseman back, the Sabres scratched Henri Jokiharju for the eighth time this season.

Meanwhile, forward Sam Lafferty, who missed nine games with a lower-body injury, also returned. Lafferty skated at right wing alongside center Ryan McLeod and Beck Malenstyn.

Lafferty said in his last appearance Nov. 29, he clipped skates with an opponent when he tried to hit him.

“So my boot twisted at a weird angle,” he said. “Luckily, it wasn’t anything too serious.”

The Sabres also scratched winger Nicolas Aube-Kubel and defenseman Jacob Bryson.

–

After starting against Toronto, Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen wasn’t expected to play again tonight in Boston.

But after yanking him from Friday’s game, Ruff sounded like he would use the Finn against the Bruins.

There was some speculation the Sabres could summon goalie Devon Levi again.

On Sunday afternoon, the Sabres recalled Levi, 22, to start the second game of a back-to-back set. They returned him to the Rochester Americans following their 5-3 loss in Toronto.

“He would be an option, but we haven’t really discussed that as of now,” Ruff said Friday morning.

Levi started for the Amerks on Friday against the Syracuse Crunch.

Sabres backup goalie James Reimer, 36, struggled in his last start Dec. 9, allowing five goals in 6-5 shootout loss to the Detroit Red Wings.

The veteran stopped all six shots he faced during Tuesday’s third period in relief of Luukkonen and 14 of the 15 shots Toronto pumped on him Friday.