The Sabres’ 4-2 win against the Dallas Stars proved to be one of their best efforts of the season.
BUFFALO — The task was a bit daunting for the Buffalo Sabres headed into their matchup against the Dallas Stars, but all it took was some solid work on the penalty kill, scoring the first goal, and a fair bit of late gumption to end the night with their second straight victory in a 4-2 win.
Yes, the Stars are a legitimate Stanley Cup contender with an all-world goaltender in Jake Oettinger as well as a roster loaded with talent. And although the Sabres are also deeply talented, they were distinct underdogs against Dallas.
But all it took to shake things loose for Buffalo was a classic gritty goal from Peyton Krebs in which he batted a puck out of the air past Oettinger for a 1-0 lead and then Ryan McLeod scoring for the fourth straight game, his fourth of the year, that made it 2-0 1:23 after that.
A brilliant wonder strike on a 2-on-1 from Tage Thompson and Owen Power made it 3-0 and despite the Stars scoring twice with the goalie pulled inside of five minutes remaining (Thomas Harley and Tyler Seguin with the tallies), an Alex Tuch empty-netter assisted by Thompson provided the final score.
You could focus on the negatives if you want to. The power play didn’t score on their lone opportunity, although it was the most dangerous it has looked all year. The Stars making it a little too interesting may have been concerning when thinking back to the Los Angeles and Pittsburgh games, but it was a game Buffalo controlled once they got the lead and that’s an improvement to be happy about.
“I think Lindy’s done a good job of allowing us to have no hesitation,” Krebs said. “We know the game plan and we know what to do. As long as we continue to do that, we’re going to see success, and it’s showing. We obviously have a long ways to go still, but this is a great start and we’re looking forward to seeing where it goes.”
More from a solid win and the hopeful start of a winning streak for the Sabres.
The content below was originally paywalled.
There were three performances in this game that are worthy of high praise. Thompson, Power, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen each played superb games.
Power was outstanding on defense in how he managed the puck and helped use his offensive skillset to both keep possession, allow the puck to flow through the offensive zone and to help create goals. He had three assists picking up secondary helpers on the first two goals from Krebs and McLeod and a primary on Thompson’s one-timer blast.
Overall, Power has been very good to start the season, and we saw a great example of that on Tuesday night. His individual expected goals-for was 1.3 at 5-on-5, the highest mark among everyone who played for either team. You can quibble with some of the defensive decisions he’s made now and again, but when he’s out there, he’s generally been excellent at helping the Sabres generate high-quality opportunities.
“I thought he really skated well, made plays, really got up ice,” Lindy Ruff said. “And then defensively, I thought he made a lot of little plays down low that allowed us to break the puck out, not spend a lot of time. I think I mentioned the puck support and getting open for each other, it’s all connected. When you see some of these long passes, the puck support isn’t great. I thought our puck support down low to make that next play and get out of the zone, that’s something we’ve got to continue to play like that and continue.”
Power playing this well, particularly in helping push the offense, is very encouraging especially since Rasmus Dahlin is still getting back to being 100 percent. Whatever mid-body issue that caused him to miss all but the first five minutes of training camp must surely still be there because the all-world defender still hasn’t quite looked like himself yet. He won’t admit it, nor should he share the whole truth about that, but it’s evident in certain situations, particularly ones where he’d be hammering opponents physically. It’s not as if he’s playing poorly, far from it—and his advanced statistics back it up—it’s just he doesn’t quite look right. It’s a long season but there’s no doubt the team is better off with him out there at less than 100 percent than not at all.
Let’s talk about Thompson’s play a little bit because what we’re seeing from him is reminiscent of what we saw from him two seasons ago when he scored 47 goals and put up nearly 100 points.
When you watch how his goal that made it 3-0 develops, all of the little plays he makes leading up to his cannon-blast one-timer is what makes this play brilliant.
It starts with the head man pass from Alex Tuch out of the defensive zone to Thompson near center ice. Thompson uses his stick to get the puck away from Miro Heiskanen who is out there shadowing Thompson and eager to pick off such a home run pass. Instead, Thompson uses his long reach to get a piece of the puck and cause Heiskanen to seemingly whiff on what would normally be a gimmie pick-off. That tip and instant recovery by Thompson allows him to take off and suddenly one of the best defensemen in the NHL is way out of position.
Now it’s Thompson carrying across center ice and an instant 2-on-1 situation develops against Matt Dumba because Owen Power recognized what happened immediately. He joins the rush, as does J-J Peterka who has Mason Marchment along for the ride with him. Peterka moves to a position down low in the circle and essentially gets the hell out of the way, meanwhile Thompson gained the blue line and drew Dumba to him, but pivoted in a way to both protect the puck and set a pick to give Power room coming up the right side of the ice.
Power had Heiskanen hauling ass to recover and defend trailing him while Thompson’s play backed off Dumba into the slot to defend the 2-on-1. Peterka and Marchment sail by Jake Oettinger to the circle, all while Thompson slid off into a shooting position wide off to the left side of the slot near the circle and the 2-on-1 setup from there put Dumba in no-man’s land. Power had the pass from Thompson on his stick for maybe one second before he slid it back to Thompson who put everything into the shot and caught Oettinger out of position because he’d already slid over out high to cut the angle down on Power.
“I felt like our line was playing well tonight, had a lot of chances, tough to beat Oettinger, their back end blocks a lot of shots, too, and makes it tough to get to the net,” Thompson said. “So, I think on that play it was a great quick up by Tuchy trapping a few guys, had a rush where their gap was a little too big for them. Heard OP coming up the ice, heard him trailing, makes a great cross-ice pass to me for a one T. I think with a goaltender like Oettinger, any time you can get him moving cross the middle of the ice two times, it’s going to be tough for him to get back. That one felt good going in and gives us a nice cushion.”
The amount of time it took to write that out and describe it lasted at least five times as long as the entire play did to develop, the shot to happen, and Thompson and the rest of the Sabres had to celebrate while the horn blared and “Kickstart My Heart” was in full blast.
It was all a beautifully handled and composed play by Thompson who has looked fantastic early on this year and boy is that good to see after the injury he played through last year hindered his game terribly. But the guy we saw late last season and the one we’re watching right now is the real Tage Thompson and he’s a unicorn that’s impossible to defend.
“I’ve talked to the team about how we need to play when we’re leading,” Ruff said. “I just sensed we were playing a little too safe. We talked about getting back on our toes and playing in the offensive zone and getting on them and trying to create turnovers. He was the one guy on the bench that got vocal and just said, ‘We’ve got to start making some plays.’ I thought he took charge. That’s what you want to see out of the leaders on your team.”
The most surprising thing that happened on Tuesday was the sight of Nicolas Aube-Kubel (out with a lower-body injury since Game 1 in Prague) taking part in-full at morning skate. The expected timeline for him with his injury was 3-6 weeks and here he was two weeks later on the ice with no restrictions.
Ruff called it “shocking” to see him back with the group and encouraged because he’s a big fan of his kind of game. Ruff likes the way he fits with the group of Sam Lafferty, Beck Malenstyn, and Peyton Krebs and adding another option to that group is nice, although it could mean we see Lafferty and Malenstyn cycle in and out of the lineup.
Even more surprising is they’re hopeful he could be an option for Saturday afternoon’s game against Detroit and if not for that game, certainly by next week.
“I was just hoping it’s not a grade-three, because that could be longer,” Aube-Kubel said. “So, I waited to come back to America to do the MRI and then once the MRI was done, I got good news that it was just a grade-two. And from there it’s three to six weeks, they were saying. I had the same injury my first year professional in Lehigh Valley, so I kind of knew a little bit what was the deal. Now I’m just trying to get used to the brace, the knee brace, and trying to get back as fast as possible.”
The grade talk from Aube-Kubel and that he was spotted in a leg brace and skated with one on Tuesday would mean he was dealing with a knee sprain of some kind if we’re going to read between the lines of the purposely garbled injury-speak. Still, it’s great to see a player recover so quickly from a potentially scary injury.
Zach Benson’s absence was one we could see coming. It was a week or so ago that Ruff mentioned he felt Benson was not at 100 percent and they sat him out against Dallas in order to get him back to better health.
“Zach is still not right,” Ruff said. “He’s been nursing this now since Prague, watching his game. I had a long discussion with him this morning and I really feel, and now he feels the same way, that he’s being affected by what he’s dealing with, and the best is we give him today. We’ve got four days to see if we can get him in a better place where it doesn’t affect his play. I give him a lot of credit for trying to play, but it has definitely affected his play. We’ve got to get him right.”