At one point Friday night, the Sabres were staring at the possibility of blowing another huge lead, but applied learning got them over the hump for a 6-2 win against Chicago.
BUFFALO — Whether you’re watching the Buffalo Sabres casually, a diehard fan, or a schlub that writes about and covers the team as much as one can, the past has a way of affecting how the present can look.
When the Sabres leapt out to a 4-0 lead after the first period and held a 4-1 lead after two periods, the prevailing thought was that they’d be better served to get the next goal.
You know, for reasons.
Then Chicago grabbed the next goal to cut the lead to 4-2 just 3:06 into the third period and immediately thoughts turned to the last game in which they held a 4-0 lead after one and 4-1 after two back on December 3 at home against Colorado.
That’s what made Alex Tuch’s tripping penalty 22 seconds after the Chicago goal to feel deeply uncomfortable. But 20 seconds after the Sabres killed off the penalty, Tuch gathered the puck and beat Chicago backup goalie Arvid Söderblom for his second of three goals on the night to make it 5-2 and allow everyone at sold out KeyBank Center to exhale.
“Yeah, it was a huge kill,” Tuch said. “Honestly, that’s a really bad penalty on my part. They’re only down by a couple goals there. They get a power-play goal, they’re down by one, and letting them back into the game definitely is not something I want to do. So, it was a tough penalty on my part, but great kill and I was lucky enough to capitalize on a little breakdown at the end of the penalty kill there.”
Yeah, Söderblom gave up an absolute stinker and the Blackhawks are not a very good team compared to most everyone in the league, especially the Colorado Avalanche, but the Sabres putting that game away after allowing Chicago to creep in a bit too close for comfort is the kind of sign you need to see from a team that’s looking to continue building wins and confidence after a season-ruining losing streak.
“I think we know where we’ve been at and now, we’d like to turn the corner, turn the page and keep going in this direction,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “I think the focus, we talked about the focus coming out of the Christmas break and you really don’t know what you’re going to get after three days off, but I think they just proved that they were ready to come out and play.”
More ahead from a festive night in Buffalo after a second straight win.
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Friday night’s game was one that had all the appearances early on of becoming a laugher. Sure, they put up four goals and jumped out to what ended up being an insurmountable lead, but the Sabres also had an 11-2 edge in shots on goal in the first and the two shots Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen faced weren’t anything remotely dangerous. They chased Blackhawks starter Petr Mrázek after the first period and Chicago looked every bit the part of a team that had an early wake-up call (4:30 AM Central time) to get to Buffalo this morning.
Even Buffalo’s second period was a mature one in which they kept good scoring chances to a minimum and had it not been for a bit of a breakdown that allowed Chicago to blitz up the ice with their top line of Connor Bedard, Taylor Hall and goal-scorer Tyler Bertuzzi, it would’ve been rather ho-hum. Sure, there were score effects when it comes to shots and attempts and all that, but the threats were minimal.
“We let them back in it a little bit,” Dylan Cozens said. “I don’t think we got nervous. We got nervous in the past and started to sit back a little bit and feel the pressure, but we talked a lot on the bench, we didn’t get down, we just kept pushing. And that’s something we’ve learned that’s really important for us.”
Cozens hit on the right point there. The Sabres have been notably poor about hiding their nerves in stressful moments when opponents are pressing, particularly after already allowing a goal. I’ve grown accustomed to saying over the past year or two that there is no team that rides the emotional highs and lows like the Sabres. When things are going well (like they did in the first period), goals and chances pile up and sometimes quickly. But when things have slipped up in recent years, the momentum swings wildly the other way and games have gotten out of control. We saw that happen against Colorado most notably, but it’s happened enough to be able to recognize it when it’s happening.
That’s what made Seth Jones’s goal early in the second period so damned fascinating. Had the Sabres gotten that next goal and made it 5-1, there’s no stress or drama and certainly no opportunity to see how the Sabres would handle having this situation stare them in the face.
Instead, Jones’s goal allowed us to witness a controlled experiment and almost immediately went sour. Tuch’s tripping penalty was terrible and it was the exact window of opportunity teams dream of in these situations. The Sabres are wincing from allowing another goal (on what was essentially a bad break from a block) and now are trying to kill a penalty against a Chicago power play that scores roughly 22 percent of the time, a top 15 unit in the NHL.
Instead of withering under the stress, the penalty kill held strong while Chicago got off four shot attempts but only one on goal for Luukkonen to stop. Once it was over, Tuch got to redeem himself in the best way possible by icing the game.
“That was a big moment in the game, obviously,” Ruff said. “That could have got them a little bit more momentum. They just finished scoring a goal and it could have put them back in the hockey game. To get that kill and get a couple saves we got on that kill was an important moment in the game.”
Tuch’s second goal—his first came in the opening period when he tipped a Tage Thompson shot past Mrázek—allowed the game to relax for Buffalo and took the wind right out of the sails for Chicago. The precipice on which momentum sits during a given game is fascinating and we’ve seen Buffalo falter in those moments too often already this season. That it took a game against another team buried deep in the standings fighting to figure things out makes a lot of sense, but the hope now is that it’s the kind of confidence builder for this group to start climbing out of the hole they’ve dug for themselves.
“I thought we had a really good team effort,” Tuch said. “It was awesome. A lot of guys played really well. Playing defense first is going to cause us to get some turnovers and some odd-man rushes which we were able to capitalize on tonight, and it was good. I think it was a key to our game tonight.”
It shouldn’t need to be said, but we’re going to say it: Rasmus Dahlin is beyond all others, the most important player on the roster.
Dahlin highlighted again on Friday what the Sabres missed while he was out with back spasms and why he’s such a difference maker for them. His shot-pass to set up Zach Benson for the first goal of the game and his ability to keep the play going that led to the game’s second goal when he got a pass to Thompson for his shot Tuch tipped got the game off and running for Buffalo.
After putting up four assists against the Islanders before Christmas, his two assists against the Blackhawks help boost the stats, sure, but they help draw attention to the other things he’s doing to help push the Sabres along.
“This is as good as he’s looked all year, these last couple games,” Ruff said. “I think the move to keep him out of the back-to-back really helped him and there was a time in the first in the first period where he was just a one-man breakout machine. Just kind of took the game in his own hands and said, ‘Here, I’m going to lead the way.’ I think we all realize what he can do, and he has been struggling all year with his ailment and now he’s starting to feel real good.”
It’s a real Captain Obvious kind of thing to say, “Rasmus Dahlin is good, and the Sabres are better with him than without him,” but so much noise comes from micro-analyzing plays, moments and situations occasionally. This is even truer for guys who were taken first overall and even more apparent for those No. 1 picks whose teams haven’t improved while they’ve been there. Watching him play and seeing how he excels and the way he’s taking on the responsibility of leading this team is vital for their growth collectively.
“Just watching those games where he was hurt, it really motivated him to get back out there and dominate and lead this team, and he’s been doing that since he’s been back,” Cozens said. “So that’s a great version of Dahls that we love to see. He’s been great.”