A Sabres 7-3 laugher against the Pittsburgh Penguins saw a lot of things that were problems earlier in the season show to no longer be issues once again.
BUFFALO — Normally, Buffalo Sabres games against the Pittsburgh Penguins tend to be a problem for the team from Western New York. The Pens have had their number repeatedly over the years and the Sabres have been, well, just generally not good.
The two previous matchups against Pittsburgh this season featured a couple of problems that plagued the Sabres all season long.
When they faced off in October in Pittsburgh, the Sabres both blew a 3-1 first period lead with a poor showing in the second period that came after they chased that night’s starter Tristan Jarry from the game in the first only to get shutdown by that night’s backup Joel Blomqvist and lost 6-5 in overtime when Sidney Crosby scored a power play goal in overtime. Evgeni Malkin even scored his 500th goal that night to add a slice of history.
Their matchup in January in Buffalo had the Sabres end the first period with a 1-0 lead only to give up three goals in the second and then allowed an empty-net goal to that night’s Penguins starter Alex Nedeljkovic who came away with a boatload of saves and a two-point game, the first goalie to ever have a goal and an assist in a game in NHL history as the Pens cruised to a 5-2 win and an absolutely unforgettable but still forgettable game.
Thursday night’s game was the Sabres answer to both of those losses. Buffalo had a 2-1 lead after the first period and the Penguins lone goal came off the stick of Crosby, a goal that secured his own place in history by clinching he’d have a point per-game season for the 20th time, a mark that helped him surpass Wayne Gretzky for the most point per-game seasons all-time.
“He’s in such a rare company where he is right now with every milestone that that he crosses,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “It just puts him in more elite company than he’s already in. So I just think when you think in terms of 20 seasons in a row with such consistency, it’s an amazing accomplishment.”
Crosby scoring to cut the lead in half would usually be a sign that things were about to get very dicey for the Sabres, but these Penguins are not at all like those of, uh, earlier this season, I guess…? Certainly not from the past 20 years anyway because the second period didn’t see the Sabres collapse in on themselves.
Buffalo scored five times and chased starter Jarry from the game after he gave up the first two, four overall, to be replaced by Nedeljkovic. The goalie change didn’t work for the Penguins, however, as Nedeljkovic allowed three goals to close out the game and the Sabres cruised to a 7-3 win.
“For us the second period was a little easier just with the momentum we had,” Tage Thompson said. “I think we were feeling pretty good about our game and had something that was working. Just pushing, our forwards were getting out of our zone and into the neutral zone and our D were sending it up and we were getting a lot of odd-man rushes, catching their forwards just kind of in no-man’s land. Stuck to that and I think speed is an identity for us and I think tonight we really stuck to playing north and fast the entire night.”
More from a game where everything worked right for the Sabres and nothing at all went correctly for the Penguins ahead…
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There’s not much to break down from such a beatdown of a game late in a season in which neither team is going to the playoffs, but after checking the boxes on the Sabres win on Tuesday night in which they were doing a lot of things well they hadn’t been doing, Thursday’s game was a continuation of that. And, honestly, most of their four-game road trip featured that as well with wins in Boston and Winnipeg and unfortunate turns in the game in Salt Lake City and St. Paul in which they did play mostly well apart from falling asleep for short stretches that killed them.
On this night they were again without Jordan Greenway (lower body) as well as Jason Zucker (personal matter) and Sam Lafferty (injured). Those are guys who have been important and/or in the lineup all season having an impact and swapping them for younger guys like Isak Rosén and Tyson Kozak doesn’t always end up working out.
Rosén set up Mattias Samuelsson with a beautifully feathered cross-ice pass for the goal that chased Jarry from the game and played a strong third period as well as we finally got a look at the Rosén we’ve seen in Rochester for most of this season.
“The more you play, the more of an opportunity you get, I think you start to feel better,” Lindy Ruff said. “I think Rosén tonight made two or three plays that we haven’t seen. I thought he skated well. There was a lot to like about his game.”
Then there was Jiri Kulich’s game. He sniped one past Jarry after a great push to the slot by Bo Byram in which he dropped a pass to Kulich who rifled one past Jarry over his right shoulder—a virtually unstoppable shot. Nedeljkovic had a similar shot zip by him unseen nearly eight minutes later when Noel Acciari accidentally provided a high screen that took away his eyes. These kinds of nights from Kulich provide a lot of hope for the future, especially because he was on a line with Zach Benson and Thompson again.
“I think we can see what Kuli’s been doing in the middle with Tommer,” Ruff said. “His primary chances, goals go up when he plays with him. You’re looking at a left-handed centerman with a right-handed winger. And there’s a few more opportunities there. There’s still times Tommer will step in and take faceoffs. You look at the shot – both shots, that’s elite shooting. That first one really wasn’t even in a shooting position, and he got a lot on it. And the second one was a bullet from where he shot.”
We know they’ve worked hard with Kulich about his defensive responsibility and making sure he’s not a liability in his own end, but when he’s teamed with Thompson and you’ve got two guys that can rip it from anywhere and score, it has the potential to give everyone across the league headaches, especially when Benson is there to muck it up and annoying the garbage out of everyone else on the ice.
Multiple times throughout the game, Penguins players pushed Benson away from them after whistles and getting their jabs in away from the officials’ eyes because of how much of a pain in the ass he was being to them. It’s an effective way to make defenders forget about a couple of snipers long enough to create offense.
Kozak got a goal for the second time in three games by just being around the net again. Beck Malenstyn let one rip that squeezed through Nedeljkovic while Kozak crashed the net and was there to sweep it in. It’s an “easy” goal, but it’s one that the Sabres weren’t always there to jump on over the past few seasons. It’s that kind of doggedness that he plays with that’s made him a favorite of Ruff’s this season. Every team needs guys that have that kind of mentality and play hard like that, regardless of size, and he’s always showed that ability going back to his junior hockey days as well as in Rochester and it’s good to see him get rewarded for playing that way.
Now… we could slap an asterisk on all of this by saying they did it against the Penguins and their goalies who have had a brutal season. But beating them has been a problem this year which is rightfully damning of the Sabres as well. It works both ways beautifully (or horridly, feelings dependent) and serves to be accurately critical of how both teams have done.
As ugly as Thursday’s loss was for Pittsburgh, the previous two for Buffalo were just as gnarly. When everyone is fighting in the mud, no one comes away from it clean, but the Sabres got to feel good in the end and the Penguins’ brief glimmer of hope they could get back into the wild card race was dashed yet again. It’s like watching “crab mentality” play out in real time.
Good things to see: Kulich’s performance, Kozak running with the opportunity, Jacob Bernard-Docker being the defensive defenseman he said he is, Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power flexing their offensive might, and another solid night from James Reimer.
Things to ponder: How Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will handle his next start, be it against Philadelphia or Washington on the weekend road back-to-back; If Jason Zucker will return Saturday against Philly—Ruff said Thursday morning he expects him to be ready; Josh Norris and Jordan Greenway statuses.