Zach Benson keeps going back to the “C” word.
“Consistency.”
Benson, a left wing with the Buffalo Sabres, wants to make a personal leap, and is ready to help the Sabres make a team leap of being consistent and competitive. The goal: Make the playoffs for the first time since 2011.
But how does a hockey player quantify consistency? Create it? Live it? Act on it?
Consistency isn’t just about saying things or repeating those words. Creating consistency is about doing those things every day and repeating them until they become a daily routine. Benson aims to make consistency a habit as he prepares for his third NHL season and aims to be a top-six forward with the Sabres.
“You look at the top guys in the league, they go through ups and downs,” Benson said. “It’s the hardest league in the world for a reason. Consistency and mentally being prepared every night, it goes a long way, and that’s one of the biggest learning lessons I’ve had.”
On a recent podcast with former Sabres defenseman John Scott, Cal Clutterbuck explained that he concentrated on three things every day to stay in an NHL lineup: Be a great penalty killer. Don’t take bad penalties. Score on every chance you get.
Clutterbuck was a little different than Benson: a grind-it-out fourth-line player with a 17-season NHL career versus a former first-round draft pick who jumped from the third line to playing on the Sabres’ top line late last season.
But as NHL players, they share a fundamental philosophy of consistency. Benson’s pursuit of consistency didn’t start in the NHL. It’s rooted with Winnipeg of the Western Hockey League. His coach, James Patrick, knows what it takes to stay in the NHL. He had a 21-season career as a defenseman, including six with the Sabres, from 1998 to 2004. He considers consistency on a personal and on a team-wide basis.
Statistics can quantify consistency – or a lack thereof – but Patrick emphasizes the value of energy, a strong work ethic and placing a premium on defense.
“When you aren’t consistent, your work ethic can’t change, or how you play, defensively,” Patrick said. “(Zach) playing at 18 or 19, with his size, length and the grind of the schedule, it’s probably not easy, but I almost look at him in a different way. Does he have a jump in his step? Does he have the energy? He brings that energy to the team. He plays with energy. That is a big thing when you’re talking about consistency.
“Can you bring the energy and work ethic on a daily basis?”
Benson, 20, enters his third NHL season and aims to strengthen his role with the Sabres. He got playing time on all four of the Sabres’ forward lines last season. He opened the season on the top line with Alex Tuch and Tage Thompson, then played primarily on the second line in November and December. He bounced between the third and fourth lines in January and February, but was back on the top line with Jiri Kulich and Thompson in the final games of the season.
He wants to be prepared every night to take on the responsibilities best suited to his strengths: His vision on the ice, his ability to be crafty with and without the puck, and his ability to be a pest.
“I don’t think I’m going to project anything,” said Benson, who scored 10 goals with 18 assists in 75 games last season. “I’ll let the coaches put me where they think I’m best suited and do what I can.”
‘Please, don’t get hit’
Patrick, the former Sabres defenseman, remembers the first Zoom calls Benson logged onto with the Winnipeg Ice during the Covid-19 shutdown in the fall and winter of 2020.
Benson was 15 and his older teammates, framed in virtual boxes on computer and tablet screens, had shaggy hair or showed signs of bed head, and had traces of adolescent scruff on their jawlines.
“He looked like a 10-year-old,” said Patrick, who begins his third season of coaching the Victoria Royals of the WHL. “Maybe 12 years old.”
Patrick, believing in the value of development, had a slow progression plan for Benson, who was to join the Ice in their Covid-19 “bubble” in order for him to gain experience and for him to be around his teammates.
Games in the WHL began in March 2021. After a week of training camp, Patrick and his staff wanted Benson to play in a maximum of six games in a condensed 24-game regular-season schedule that continued through the end of April. The goal was for Benson to absorb the speed of the major-junior game, as well as the team and league culture.
Benson had other ideas.
“From the very first practice, he was the most noticeable player on the ice,” Patrick said. “I even said, ‘Holy smokes, is that kid good!’ His skill level, his speed, and from day one, he was impressive.”
The Ice put Benson on its third line, and he played in 24 games that season, scoring 10 goals with 10 assists and was a plus-8 with 12 penalty minutes against players who were older, stronger and bigger than him.
And that was Patrick’s hesitation: That Benson, at 5-foot-7 and 135 pounds, would be physically overmatched. He thought back to a game against the Brandon Wheat Kings, when Benson lined up against Reid Perepeluk, a 6-3, 205-pound right wing. He even thought, “I cannot have Zach Benson on the ice when Perepeluk is out there.”
“Zach goes on after an icing, and there’s Perepeluk,” Patrick said. “Zach lined up against this guy, and there’s almost a 100-pound difference, and I’m thinking, ‘Please don’t get hit.’ ”
To Patrick’s relief, Benson was unbothered and uninjured.
“He never put himself in harm’s way,” Patrick said. “That was Zach as a 15-year-old.”
In Benson’s second season with the Ice, he immediately played on the top two lines and by the end of the year, he was on the Ice’s top line, finishing with 25 goals and 38 assists in 58 games.
He primarily was teamed with Matt Savoie – the Sabres’ first-round draft pick in 2022 – and they combined to lead the WHL in shorthanded goals.
By his third season, Benson was a bona fide first-round pick in the NHL, and an efficient two-way WHL forward, leading a line that created scoring chances while limiting their opponents’ shot opportunities.
“He elevated the line he was on and the linemates around him, whoever he was matched with,” Patrick said of Benson, who scored 36 goals and was a plus-68 in 60 regular-season games in his final season with the Ice.
From WHL to NHL
Benson jumped straight into the Sabres lineup in October 2023, a little more than three months after he was the No. 13 overall pick in Nashville. He had more than a few “a-ha” moments when it came to learning the nuances – and the painfully obvious points – of playing in the NHL.
He played in some of the most vaunted buildings, including Madison Square Garden in New York City. He went against players whom he grew up watching, and a few of his friends.
He went into scrums with some of the NHL’s more notorious annoyers and yappers.
“You’re just like, ‘Wow, I’m getting into it,’ with whoever it is, Brad Marchand, or someone that you look up to,” Benson said. “That stuff is kind of like, obviously in the moment, it’s not like, ‘Wow’ but you look back at it and you’re like, ‘Yes, it’s pretty cool.’ ”
He won’t offer details on the exchange with Marchand, one of the NHL’s more fabled pests. Given how Benson has carved his niche early in his career, though, he may have taken a few mental notes.
Benson doesn’t have the height and range of Tuch or Thompson. But he has smarts and a mean streak that has given him a new role: A player who has a knack for getting under an opponent’s skin, a la Marchand or Washington’s Tom Wilson. They’re NHL players who will probably never win the Lady Byng Trophy, but they have found their forte in balancing skill and the ability to be an agitator.
Benson isn’t just refining his feral side. Benson is from Chilliwack, British Columbia, about 65 miles east of Vancouver, but spent his summer training in Vancouver with a group of NHL players, including Chicago Blackhawks center Connor Bedard, Washington left wing Andrew Cristall and Columbus Blue Jackets center Kent Johnson, including off-ice training that focused on refining speed.
He also focused on putting more muscle onto his 5-10, 170-pound frame and improving his explosiveness.
Now, it’s a matter of finding his place in the Sabres’ lineup.
Patrick also has offered advice to Benson for growth. Put on at least 5 pounds. Gain a half-step in timing to gain top-end speed. Shoot the puck when you get scoring chances, and take more quality chances, rather than looking for the right pass to a teammate or over-anticipating an offensive opportunity.
Also, think big.
“Every other bit of advice, he does it,” Patrick said. “He works his hardest. He goes to the dirty areas. This is a big year for everyone, the whole team, Zach included. Everything he has accomplished, he’s a team-first player and that will never change.
“But now it’s, how do you help the team win? The mindset: ‘I’m going to compete and help the team win.’”
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Rachel Lenzi
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