Zach Benson’s favorite moments from the Sabres’ playoff run

On the Aug. 5 episode of Morning Cuppa Hockey, Jonny Lazarus and Colby Cohen chat with Buffalo Sabres’ forward Zach Benson to discuss his new contract, the offseason and what the Stanley Cup Playoffs were like in Western New York.

Jonny Lazarus: Did you see the action going on outside with the “Blade Gang” before you stepped out on the ice? I’m curious what the chatter was inside the locker room.

Zach Benson: It was so electric. I remember driving to the rink and I saw everyone out front. I legit had goosebumps when I was walking into the arena. I was laying in the trainer’s room and they had their little TV on of the pre-game and the camera flashed to the Blade Gang beating up some dummy, and I remember just sitting there howling, like, “who are these guys? What are they doing?” That one was hilarious.

You guys had a pretty cool experience in the playoffs. You played the Boston Bruins, then the Montreal Canadiens. You played two Original Six organizations for the playoffs, and I won’t emphasize it being the first playoffs for the Sabres, but it was your first NHL playoffs.

Did you have a moment where you thought, “this was different”? Was there one thing that stood out where you felt like, “holy shit, this is something else?”

Zach Benson: The big two that stand out was Game 1 against Boston at home, because warmup was sold out and everyone was on their feet. So that was crazy. But Montreal … that was unbelievable. At 3 a.m., I would wake up to, “ole” chants on the street. The lining up for the national anthems, the ice was legitimately shaking. It was loud in there.

Those were two of my “welcome to the playoff” moments. It was so much fun.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…