Tage Thompson and J-J Peterka each had hat tricks to help Buffalo run Boston off the ice in a 7-2 win
BUFFALO — When you think about how things have gone for the Buffalo Sabres any time the Boston Bruins came to town, it’s almost always been a bad scene, but when things take a turn, it can really swing hard the other way.
Going into Tuesday night’s game, the Bruins had won six in a row at KeyBank Center and nine of the last 10. That time coincided with the Sabres being a not-great team and the Bruins being a pretty damn good one. That’s what made Buffalo’s 7-2 laugher victory so much more startling.
Tage Thompson and J-J Peterka each had a hat trick and four points to lead the way as they opened up a four-game homestand with an emphatic win. The Sabres getting a win in such a way against a team that’s owned them on their own ice for so long is gratifying.
It should also be a staggering sensation for the Bruins who, for a lack of a more concise description, looked very much like the Sabres have for most of the season in this particular game. The roles were reversed in their own way and while the Sabres are down in the depths well outside of the wild card race, the Bruins are right in the thick of it and missed out on a chance to leap into third place alone in the Atlantic Division.
It was a “Freaky Friday” situation that, if you were a fan of the Bruins, would terrify you. For the Sabres, it was a potential sign of long overdue growth.
“The goals are great, the response is great,” Thompson said. “I think right after a team scores, that’s the most important shift of the game. That can dictate the outcome of the game. We’ve been on the other side of it where they score and they turn it into another one and it deflates you. So we know how important those shifts are. Whether or not you score, you’ve just got to get the momentum.”
Some next-day thoughts and analysis ahead.
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The encouragement of Tuesday’s win comes in the form of how the Sabres responded to giving up the goals they did in the situations they came in.
Bruins defenseman Mason Lohrei got the first goal of the game and even though scoring first has given the Sabres some mental hurdles to navigate all season, chasing the game isn’t a good thing to do in general. That’s what made Thompson’s first goal, a howitzer of a slap shot clocked at 102.28 mph, that beat Jeremy Swayman 55 seconds later an important goal. Boston wasn’t able to get their own game ramped up and the Sabres didn’t have enough time to let it sink in mentally that they were down.
Yes, these are baby steps kinds of things, but with how quickly games have turned for Buffalo in moments like this, seeing an immediate response was encouraging. That they did it again in the third period after Brad Marchand scored a power play goal that cut the Sabres lead to 4-2 (ignoring the fact they got the power play after a brutal Dylan Cozens penalty in the first place) when Peterka wired one over Swayman’s shoulder from the left circle just 30 seconds later was as good to see for Buffalo as it was awful for Boston. For at least one game, however, it was a sign that perhaps progress was being made.
“We’ve said through all of these, even in a lot of the disappointments, we’re in this thing together,” Lindy Ruff said. “I said I’m at the forefront. There’s a lot of different things we’ve tried that I think we’re finally getting a benefit from.”
Thompson pointed out that this was, indeed, just one game, but being able to shake off a goal against and go get another one is a moment to build on. We’ve broken down too many situations this season where that one goal against was enough to completely undo what, to that point, was a well-played game. This is like back-to-basics kind of growth, but the ups and downs we’ve watched all year showed that all it takes is that one goal to change the game completely.
Marchand’s goal made it 4-2 with 9:47 to play and with a two-goal lead, that was more than enough time for things to change for the worse for the Sabres and really get out of hand again. That’s why Peterka’s answer a half minute later was able to put the game to bed for real. With Peterka and Thompson playing on the same line, it was like they had the hammer to end the game whenever they wanted.
“I think it’s the chemistry of that line,” Ruff said. “I thought the line had a little bit of a tough night in Edmonton, when you look at what they generated and what the line gave up as a whole. But they bounced right back. Their game in Vancouver was good, the game in Calgary I liked, Edmonton a little bit of a down game for that line, but I thought they bounced back and had one hell of a night. Not too many times you can have a line with two guys where you end up with two guys getting a hat trick on the same line.”
Having things to build on beyond the midpoint of the season isn’t totally ideal because you’d rather have everything already built and then being fortified as the season goes along. But this hasn’t been the kind of season for that for various reasons. It’s still a good sign to see it even when things aren’t looking up for the rest of the season.
The hardest math
The 50-game mark of the season is one where a lot of realization sets in. After the Sabres were away for the past week-plus and went 1-3-0 on their swing through Seattle and Western Canada, the math of their situation is really hammered home.
Tuesday night’s win puts the Sabres at 43 points. They’re still last in the Eastern Conference. They’re five points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for second to last in the East and 12 points behind Tampa Bay for the second wild card position. They’re 13 behind Boston and Ottawa for third in the Atlantic Division.
With the 32 games they have left to play, winning 20 of them would give them 83 points and leave them one point behind the point total they had a season ago. The Sabres would have to go on the kind of tear that would be legendary if they’re going to get within shouting distance of the postseason and with how inconsistent they’ve been all season long, it’s hard to imagine that happening.
The resignation that the time to start looking ahead to the draft is there and trying to figure out what, if anything, will happen with the roster in the next month or so began a while ago. Should they finish with fewer points than last season, and if it winds up being far fewer, means the offseason won’t be quiet. At least anywhere else it wouldn’t be, that’s for sure.