Buffalo won in overtime on an Owen Power goal with two seconds left… until they didn’t and won 3-2 in a shootout.
BUFFALO — SHEESH.
For a game that had intrigue because of the deals both the Buffalo Sabres and Edmonton Oilers made in the past week and the annual return of Connor McDavid and Evander Kane to the city, it had a dump truck full of drama that had nothing at all to do with any of it.
The Sabres took home a 3-2 win which if you just like to glance at the box score you’d think was a regular ho-hum game. But games rarely are ever so simple. I’ve always had the opinion that game stories are important because each game is its own story to be told, it’s just a matter of the level of the challenge.
This one proved to be a convolutedly simple one to piece together.
Buffalo overcame an early 2-0 hole after goals from Ryan McLeod 29 seconds into the game and a shorthanded tally by Warren Foegele in the first period. Tage Thompson’s goal on that same power play Foegele scored on made it 2-1 in the first and Jacob Bryson’s first of the season in the third period knotted it up.
But overtime is where things got silly.
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The extra period proved to be exciting on its own merits. McDavid’s speed and Leon Draisaitl’s creativity are weapons meant to ruin other teams in all situations, but particularly with a lot of open ice during 3-on-3.
The funny thing about McDavid, however, is that for as brilliant as he is, the Sabres have historically done well to (mostly) keep him quiet. For the sixth time in 14 career games against Buffalo, he was held without a point. Of course, he has 14 points in the other eight games against them so… there’s that.
But to keep a player of his caliber off the board multiple times is something else. Particularly when you look at how Eastern Conference foes like Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin made it their mission to put as many points up against them as time would allow.
This 3-on-3 however seemingly came to an end with 2.1 seconds left when Owen Power snapped a shot past Stuart Skinner low just beyond the reach of his pad. The horn bellowed, the fans roared, the Sabres piled off the bench to celebrate while the Oilers retreated to the dressing room to prepare to leave for Pittsburgh, the next destination on their Eastern Conference road trip.
It’s at this point many of us writers hustle to catch the elevator to get downstairs to do postgame availability with players and coaches. While jogging to the elevator, it’s normal for me to run into Sabres assistant/goalie coach Mike Bales. Only this time as we’re all in a hurry I hear him say they might be looking at this for offside.
That’s interesting, but immediately I wonder if we’re going to run into a hard stop upon getting downstairs. It’s there we hear the groans and boos from the crowd start and begin to swell. We see the television in the media room showing the slow-motion replay from the blue line camera showing what purported to be Alex Tuch arriving in the zone a whisper before Bo Byram brought the puck fully across the blue line.
That whisper was enough to get the teams out of the locker rooms and back onto the bench while they put just more than 20 seconds back on the clock to restart overtime. This review and effort to get the teams back to the benches took minutes and that it came to needing to bring guys out, some of whom were already changing out of their gear, is asinine.
“We were looking at it in the dressing room with the video coaches and it looked like it was extremely close,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “It looked, frame by frame, their quality that they get a look at is different than what we get to see, and obviously they saw that it was offside. Everyone was pretty disappointed and getting their gear off and that’s what the delay was, but it gave us an opportunity to get that extra point but unfortunately, we didn’t.”
It was a second life for Edmonton and a kick in the teeth for Buffalo.
“It was pretty weird,” Sabres defenseman Bo Byram said. “We’re in here celebrating a big win and get called back out there, but just happy that we finished it out and got the win still. Would have been a sour taste.”
For the Sabres, it meant refocusing and keeping their head in the game and shootout while the Oilers had the chance redeem themselves and send the home fans away hyperactively pissed. Instead, Thompson and Alex Tuch scored in the shootout and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped two out of three Oilers shooters with only Draisaitl scoring to win the game once more.
“(Luukkonen)’s been big the last what, 30 (games)? The whole season for all that matters,” Bryson said. “He’s been unbelievable, and he’s been kind of our rock back there. He made a lot of big saves tonight and as a D corps we can always trust him. He’s good at playing the puck, he’s good at basically everything, so he’s got good numbers and there’s good reason for that.”
Shutting down McDavid during the first 65 minutes and once more in the shootout in his first time facing the Oilers was a heck of a test for Luukkonen in a season where he’s seized control of the net and proving he’s absolutely their No. 1.
“(McDavid’s) an unbelievable player,” Luukkonen said. “Kind of lucky that he’s that good, so I saw highlights before of what he’s going to do in the shootout. It’s kind of fun to play against. He’s so skillful and so fast. It was great to face him the first time, and it was good to get the win.”
What’s funny is how the passing of the trade deadline and the departure of Kyle Okposo to Florida brought about a bit of sadness and a reckoning of sorts about how the shortcomings of this season led to him being dealt to a Stanley Cup contender since it was becoming clear the possibility of the Sabres making the playoffs was growing smaller.
But Detroit has gone cold, and Tampa Bay has been inconsistent and now Buffalo sits seven points behind those two teams who currently own the two wild card spots in the East with 17 games to play, three of which are against Detroit, two of them next week on Tuesday and Saturday. Funnier things have happened.
Noted Notes
JJ Peterka did not play the final 35:04 of the game and had 6:04 time on-ice. He played doorman on the bench the rest of the way. Jeff Skinner played 9:15 and played only a few shifts in the third period with his ice time cut significantly after his turnover led to the Oilers’ shorthanded goal in the first.
Don Granato explained both players being out of the mix as making the choice to shorten the bench in a winnable game.
“The decision today was certain guys had it more than others, they’re going to play, because we’re in need to win situation, obviously,” Granato said. “And you know there’s some nights where you don’t have anybody going, there is no discrepancy between, and it’s hard to go to certain guys and limit others because there’s not much discrepancy. And today I felt that Jost line was really at a high, high level. And that’s the difference.”
While Skinner and Peterka rode the pine, Tyson Jost and Lukas Rousek got a fair bit more play, as did Victor Olofsson. Some will gripe about those guys for various reasons, but they played well and played hard. Jost had a brilliant scoring chance on a 2-on-1 with Dylan Cozens where his shot went wide.
With chances like that missing and the countless number of posts hit by the Sabres, eventually coming out of the game with two points felt justified.