Buffalo’s 5-2 win on the road in Ottawa made them 4-0-0 against them and gave a glimpse at what they’re building to establish next season.
KANATA, ONTARIO, CANADA — Even though the Ottawa Senators will live the dream the Buffalo Sabres were attempting to fulfill this year by ending their own playoff drought (eight years), the Sabres’ quest for knowledge and growth throughout this difficult year will conclude seeing them taking a chunk out of their rivals.
The Sabres swept the season series against the Senators with a 5-2 win at Canadian Tire Centre and finished 4-0-0 against them. Despite getting out to a 4-1 lead and seeing the Senators make it a bit nerve-wracking when they made it 4-2 moments later in the third period to awaken the home crowd, they held on, killed a late penalty, and iced the game with an empty-net goal.
It hasn’t gotten tiresome to talk about the Sabres closing games like this out because there have been so many games this season where they absolutely did not do that. Still, seeing them do it against playoff teams—damn good ones like Washington, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Vegas and now Ottawa—is beyond refreshing and makes for a very adult turn for such a young team. That effort has been noticed and it’s commendable even if it drives some fans crazy to see them figuring it out when they’re out of the mix for the playoffs.
“You’re fed up with it even early in the season, but it’s a confidence thing,” Tage Thompson said. “It’s easy when you lose a few of those games early in the year and you don’t close them out and next time you’re in that situation you start to grip your stick a little tighter and start to replay things that happened in the past. That’s not a healthy way to play the game.
“You have to be on your toes and right now because there’s maybe not as much pressure, the games aren’t as important as far as points for playoffs or whatever, there is that lack of fear, which is the way you need to play all the time. The fact we were playing these games right now and winning against good teams gives you the confidence that you know you can do it. That’s something you need to carry into the remaining games and into the summer, moving into next season. Start from day one and have that confidence that you can close out these games against good teams.”
It’s incredibly easy to be bitter about seeing a similar kind of thing happening again with the team playing well when the stakes are minimal. And it’s easy to be jaded hearing the team talking about getting it right for next season. But teams don’t spend 50 to 60 games trying to get it right, then figure it out only to punt on the rest of the season, not when they’re this young and many of the stars have committed to being in Buffalo. We’re also not going to go so far as to say, “this time it’s different,” because you also just don’t know how things will prove out anyway.
There is a collective stiffening of the upper lip in the face of danger and added in-game pressure, however, and the proof is in the wins. You can pooh-pooh it by saying the opposing teams aren’t getting up for playing the Sabres, sure, but when the playoff drought goes for 14 years, this kind of growth is the glimmer of hope to latch onto.
“I think we’re locked into a better style,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “We’re not giving up the crazy chances. I think the managing the puck has been better, I think inside the zone a lot more aggressive. We’re locked in to how we feel we need to finish the game.”
More ahead from a game (and a series of games) to keep in mind down the road along with thoughts from Ruff, Thompson and Peyton Krebs.
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First up, here’s tonight’s writing soundtrack from a strange room in the bowels of Canadian Tire Centre:
Fitting for tonight’s game, really. Bless the randomizer for popping this up on the phone.
The Sabres got goals from the guys they need to get them from to be a playoff team next season: Alex Tuch, Rasmus Dahlin, Tage Thompson, Peyton Krebs and Ryan McLeod (shorthanded empty-netter).
Tuch put a rebound of a Mattias Samuelsson shot past our ole’ pal Linus Ullmark to make it 1-0 in the first. Dahlin’s one-timer from far out after a great play and pass by Jack Quinn sailed past Ullmark to make it 2-0. McLeod hovered nearby looking for a tip but his presence near the goal proved to be a good distraction.
Thompson’s 39th goal of the year in the second period came during a 4-on-4 situation. He carved his way through the Senators’ zone defense and found himself all alone in the slot with a great opportunity to shoot…except he passed to J-J Peterka parked in the circle. Instead of one-timing it, Peterka zipped a pass right back to Thompson who had a yawning net to bury it to make it 3-0.
Thompson was so wide open to shoot in the slot that seeing him pass off brought back countless memories of Grade-A scoring chances given up for a more fun look elsewhere. A collective “what are you doing?!” likely came up from the fan base (and maybe in the minds of some of the collected media in the press box) only to see that goal happen and look even prettier in the process.
“Honestly, I didn’t even realize I had that much time,” Thompson said. “As soon as I got around the first guy, I heard J-J yelling for it and he made a great play back to me. I think they were cheating that pass. Ullmark slid over quite a bit and J-J makes a great little touch pass right back to me, so great play by him and it was a nice one.”
It was 1:10 after Thompson’s goal that Claude Giroux got one back for Ottawa to make it 3-1 and off to the third period it went.
In the third, Krebs ripped a shot past Ullmark after he intercepted a pass in the neutral zone by his best friend and former teammate Dylan Cozens. Krebs cruised up the left side and ripped a shot Ullmark wasn’t able to snag to make it 4-1.
“I was just trying to play good neutral zone (defense),” Krebs said. “I’ve been working on that lots, just trying to break up plays. Just kind of try to force them wide. Saw that he wanted to make the pass, got the puck and put it in the net.”
Right when you thought that would be it for the game, Jake Sanderson let one fly from above the circle 23 seconds later to make it 4-2. That goal awakened the crowd and with 9:38 to play, the test was on for the Sabres to close out the game.
Bo Byram took a tripping penalty with 3:35 left in the game and with the power play and Ullmark pulled for the extra skater, instead of allowing a goal that made the game even more uncomfortable, McLeod got the puck in the neutral zone and buried one center of the net from the red line with 2:39 to play. Game.
“I think we’ve been working on it a lot, emphasizing those little details as a group,” Krebs said. “For us to be a good team, we got to close out these games. Early in the year, we weren’t doing that, and that’s a good step in the right direction. No, it’s a lot of fun winning those hockey games.”
There will be no shaming of anyone who reads quotes like that or even the analysis of the game and says, “Ah, whatever man, win when it matters, I’ve seen it all before.” I get it, we all get it, it’s very understandable. Still, if this team and these players are dead serious about getting things right and helping the Sabres get back to the playoffs, these are the improvements necessary to do it.
And yeah, it’s happened in the past only to see it all get forgotten or completely undone the following year and further enhance the jadedness, the bitterness…the cynicism. It’s almost full-blown Nihilism within the fan base now and it’s perfectly understandable. The message preached on these pages has always been to just friggin’ win and it’ll all get figured out and that will never change. But winning, learning how to win, and knowing how to win doesn’t always happen naturally as much as everyone wants that to be the case.
Be encouraged by this run of play if you want to, it might pan out this time. Maybe.
The hardship of parting ways with pals midseason
One of the hardest parts of professional sports for the athletes is how trades can jar things both within the room and personally. Twice in the past week-plus, the Sabres and Senators faced off against each other after a monumental trade that involved sending guys who were hugely popular with their own teams out of town. Josh Norris went to Buffalo and Dylan Cozens to Ottawa.
Cozens and all the Western Canadian guys on the Sabres roster were fast friends, but for fiercely competitive guys like Cozens and Peyton Krebs, going from being teammates for years to sudden division rivals was difficult for a lot of reasons.
“Cozzy’s been one of my closest buddies, for sure,” Krebs said. “Seeing him get traded is tough. Tough for me, tough for a lot of guys, for sure. That’s obviously the business we’re in. It happens. The first game was weird, weird kind of scuffle, like just kind of punching each other in the face is pretty funny. Trades happen and over time you just have to get used to it, but it’s definitely been weird that the trade happened and then we play each other two more times right after that quick. It’s part of the business but it’s tough.”
Krebs isn’t unfamiliar with trades, of course. He was a key player in the Jack Eichel blockbuster with Vegas and even though he was still basically a prospect at that point when it went down, having that experience and being on a Sabres team that’s made some big deals that sent popular guys out of town is something that’s never easy to deal with.
“You go from being with a guy every single day to after that, your paths don’t really cross other than playing each other a whole lot,” Krebs said. “You just try to stay in touch, I think that’s the biggest thing. Shoot a text out and maybe in the summer we’ll go hang out or something. You want to keep those connections and be life-long friends. You want to root for him, too, and hope he does well in his new situation. All the best.”
What makes trades from the perspective of Sabres players even more difficult is watching guys go to teams destined for the playoffs, some of them off to eventual Stanley Cup winners. Last season it was captain Kyle Okposo going to Florida where he got to ride off into the sunset after the Panthers took home the Stanley Cup.
In Cozens’s case, he goes to Ottawa where he’ll get to play in the NHL postseason for the first time in his career. If it’s hard to part ways with your best friend because of a trade, getting to cheer them on creates a bittersweet sensation and adds to the fire for the future.
“It’s going to be great for Cozzy to get some playoffs, it’s playoff time and get that in him,” Krebs said. “I think for me it gets me more fired up to make the playoffs in Buffalo. I think I really want to see it through and when we make the playoffs it’s going to feel really good. For Cozzy to go, and play playoffs, I’m definitely going to be jealous, for sure. You want guys to have success and make the playoffs but at the same time, so do we. We want to be a playoff team and be a Stanley Cup contender. We’ve got to keep working and I really want to see it through.”