Following the Sabres 3-2 comeback win against the Ducks, Alex Tuch said this was a game they’d lose badly three months ago. He’s right, too.
BUFFALO — When the Buffalo Sabres entered the third period against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night, they trailed 2-0, victimized twice by the Ducks’ power play (No. 31 in the NHL) and cursed by three shots off the post in the first period.
All season the Sabres have been a terrible third period team (minus-17 goal differential) and they were 3-18-0 when trailing after two periods. It was a frustrating game for Buffalo and one where a lot of old, bad habits popped up in the second period as the Ducks made life miserable on the home team.
Lindy Ruff shuffled lines to start the third and immediately the trio of Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch, and Jordan Greenway created a Grade-A scoring chance with a shot from Thompson. That kind of attack was something that wasn’t seen all game long and it was a signal that things might be different…and they were.
J-J Peterka reunited with Dylan Cozens and Jack Quinn and Cozens set Peterka up for a one-timer that made it 2-1. Minutes later, Tuch took advantage of an off-balance Ducks goaltender Lukáš Dostál putting a shot from along the goal line off him and into the net to tie it. Four minutes after that, Henri Jokiharju whistled a shot from a similar sharp angle over Dostál’s shoulder, past his ear into an opening at the top corner of the net only big enough for the puck to fit through. Cozens assisted on all three goals. It was a stirring comeback.
That 3-2 win came virtually out of nowhere, but it made all the sense in the world that it happened given how the Sabres played the third period. They outshot the Ducks 18-6 in the third period and peppered Dostál with shot attempts all game. It was an earned win even though it had all the makings of a game we’ve seen too often this year.
“I’d say three months ago it would’ve been a 5-1 loss, honestly,” Tuch said. “And you see the maturity, you see the change, you see no one was down. We were pushing each other, we were pressing each other, we’re making sure each other were held accountable and making sure we were doing the right things the whole time. It was awesome…it was contagious.”
The Ducks power play goals came on a first period 5-on-3 with one of the penalties being highly questionable and Mason McTavish cashing in along with a second period power play where goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen kicked a rebound of a Leo Carlsson shot back out to defenseman Pavel Mintyukov in the high slot who slipped a pass back to Carlsson for ripping one-timer.
It was two goals on seven shots nearly 25 minutes into the game by one of the league’s worst power plays. If that didn’t scream “brutal runaway loss” to you after two periods, we’re not sure which team you were watching. Tuch was right and he was right to point that out and he’s even more correct in highlighting the growth this Sabres team has made.
More on that ahead…
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Seeing the Sabres instantly take control of the game in the third period was the kind of flex we haven’t seen often. You can’t say we’ve never seen it because they’ve had their share of moments where they’ve hulked up and took control at various points in a game…it just hasn’t happened this season in the third period.
Tuesday’s win was the Sabres first multigoal third period comeback win of the season and, sure, maybe you want to pooh-pooh it for coming against a very young Ducks team that’s begun their climb out of a rebuild. That’s fair. But it’s also fair to point out Anaheim has a better record than Buffalo and entered the game on a five-game point streak and winners of four of their past five games and seven of the previous nine (7-1-1). Sure, they were without suspended star Trevor Zegras and starting goalie John Gibson was out day-to-day and didn’t even dress as backup on Tuesday, but so what?
The win is the thing and now the Sabres have wins in six of the past seven games.
“Yeah, it sucked to be down 2-0 there off penalty-kill goals,” Cozens said. “But we just kept battling. Even when things were going well, we just kept battling kept working, we trusted that we were going to win this game, and we never gave up.”
The Sabres winning that game with so much working against them also included Luukkonen not having his best night as well. All the stars were aligned for it to be a same-old, same-old forgettable and annoying loss against a very beatable team eager to get back home at the end of a road trip. And yet…
“Earlier in the year, I talked about (how) we didn’t deal with adversity very well,” Ruff said. “We took what I call a bad penalty early in the game. Gave them a 5-on-3, we gave them some life – and we’ve been a good first-period team. Early in the year, we didn’t handle that very well. We’d probably ramp it up a little bit too soon, and all of a sudden it’s probably three or four for them, and we’re chasing the game. I thought we stayed with it. I think it shows some of the growth of the club.”
The standings are stacked against the Sabres right now with everyone in front of them to get past. But we’ve all watched enough hockey from this franchise to know that kind of daunting road ahead would’ve made a lot of those past teams call it a season and start warming up for summer golf. We also know there are plenty of past teams that would rally hard late in the season and give it a good, honest go to try and get back there.
I’ve read your posts and thoughts, I know you’ve all been saying these things and preemptively protecting your hearts from being kicked around again by some version of disappointment. But when you look at all of the stuff this team dealt with and how honest they played during that 13-game losing streak and the early slow start to the season, what can be seen as ineptitude and lackadaisical play by guys way too young could also be viewed as what happens with a young (yet experienced) group that a lot of whom are on their third coach in four or five years needing to go through all of it again.
It’s not an excuse if it’s the truth and the way Ruff does things is drastically different from the way both Don Granato and Ralph Krueger did. Different systems, strategies… all of it, and those coaches didn’t have to shorten training camp up to go to Europe for two weeks in the prime preseason time to work out all of those kinks as best as they can. Watching them win games like they did on Tuesday when they very literally haven’t won any games like that all year and with some of the other victories, there were moments in which things would’ve gotten dicey and potentially out of control that they were able to put away without much stress are also vital signs.
Playoffs may be a long-distance dream you scoff at, but all of what they’re doing now is exactly what you want to see because they’re still young and figuring things out. The waiting stinks, the losses hurt, but without the hurt there’s no growth to be made. There’s a lot to be figured out before the trade deadline hits next week, but the more wins that happen like that, the more you can feel a little better about the direction things are going.
They’ve got games in hand; they’ve got more points to potentially earn…they’ve got an opportunity to make things a lot more interesting because almost no one in front of them in the wild card race in the East has any interest in locking things down. They’re 7-3-0 in their last 10 games and only Detroit (8-1-1), Tampa Bay (7-2-1) and Florida (7-3-0) have been equal or better than that in the last 10. The Red Wings are in a wild card spot, but the other two are in the top three of the Atlantic.
“We’ve got to become a better road team – obviously we’re heading on the road,” Ruff said. “We’ve played some really good hockey here at home, and now it’s time to go on the road and win some hockey games.”
It’s Al Davis time.