Some takeaways from the Sabres 7-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday
BUFFALO — It’s said that sometimes you can have clearer thoughts about a subject if you sleep on it, so that’s the approach we’re taking after watching the Buffalo Sabres beat the virtual Pittsburgh Penguins 7-3 in the preseason opener.
We’re calling them the virtual Pittsburgh Penguins because their lineup featured nearly as many players who participated in the Prospects Challenge in Buffalo last weekend (six) than played NHL games in their career (nine). The Sabres, meanwhile, with a bit of a crunch given their NHL group is headed to Europe on Tuesday iced essentially an opening night roster.
It was never going to be close and winning or losing wasn’t really the focus of the whole thing given the discrepancies in talent and experience. Still, the Sabres did what they were supposed to (win, score a bunch of goals, play well) and it’s good for us to break things down a little bit.
“The pace was good. I still think we’ve got a ways to go with pace,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “The decision making and the trust that we’re going to be somewhere, and it’s not the guy with the puck. It really is the guy away from the puck that has to do the work and if he doesn’t do the work, you saw it tonight a couple of times, we had some turnovers and I don’t blame it on the guy with the puck. If we have guys hitting the hole a little bit sooner, we would have had better play. So, it’s just something that we’re going to continue to work on.”
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Seeing the Sabres rack up seven goals against this group of Penguins wasn’t all that surprising, but given they scored four of them in a 4:40 span early in the second period was a bit of excitement and put the game to bed early.
JJ Peterka had a hat trick in which he was able to get goals in different ways. His first was on a deflection on the power play in the first period in which he, Tage Thompson, and Alex Tuch were all around the front of the net when Jack Quinn fired away from out high.
Scoring a power play goal not on a one-timer or some kind of designed play came as a sort of “no shit, they can do that!” sort of moment for fans and media and onlookers all who begged Buffalo to get some kind of presence around the net on the power play. That there were three guys within 10 feet of the net when Quinn’s shot arrived on goal was maybe a bit too much, but in hindsight the justification of a net presence was reward enough.
The Sabres went 1-for-3 on the power play and even though we’re not going to judge or meticulously break down how and what the power play did for success in this game or in a setting like this, two of their three opportunities with the mad advantage looked strong.
“I think when you have a lane and you’ve got somebody that’s got a stick up there and you can, that’s as good a shot as you’re going to get when you have a clear lane,” Ruff said. “And if you can get a stick on it, obviously, it’s going to end up having a chance to go in the back of the net. I thought the second power play, we had two or three really good looks. We could have scored on that one. So, we just got to continue to work on all aspects of our game and the power play’s going to be one of them.”
Peterka’s second goal was a ripper with a wide-open look after Tuch created room for him and slipped him a sneaky pass to set him free. That goal in the first minute of the second period and began their five-goals-in-less-than-five-minutes onslaught.
Both of Pittsburgh’s goalies who played Saturday night had zero NHL experience and starter Joel Blomqvist who allowed six of the seven goals in the first 26 minutes of the game bore the brunt of it. Blomqvist was Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s No. 1 goalie and getting to face the actual Buffalo Sabres (sans Rasmus Dahlin, Jason Zucker, Ryan McLeod and Jordan Greenway) was a rude way to begin the preseason.
Peterka’s third goal concluded the five-goal run and also came via tip in front when Thompson had all day to get free for a high slot shot. That’s a less-than ideal situation for any team regardless of quality, but Peterka getting a stick on it in close and beating the goalie is an encouraging sign. Big-time goal scorers have to be able to score from anywhere on the ice in any situation and being a perimeter player in Ruff’s game plan is not going to fly. Getting in close as well as being able to snipe from angles will go a long way.
“(Peterka) had a great year last year and I think, with confidence, I don’t know what the ceiling is,” Ruff said. “I thought he got unselfish later on, he passed up some opportunities. He got a heck of a shot. He passed up some opportunities. He wanted to get one over to change on a what would have been a “grade-A” opportunity, but I think, with Tuch’s playmaking ability and the fact you’ve got Peterka and Thompson that can hang on the pucks and make plays and then both great shooters. I mean, on the outside, it looks like the makings of a good line.”
What I was most curious to see last night was how the Sabres would play the system Ruff and staff are working to put in place. It’s physically demanding both in cardiovascular and brute force ways. Players got put through the wringer with the speed of action the first couple days of camp and the jarring jolt back to reality from the offseason had guys huffing and puffing despite being in extremely good shape as is.
But as they’ve worked on this week leading up to Saturday night’s game, the forecheck was intense and the movements in and out of the zone were done quickly. There wasn’t a lot of dawdling with the puck in the zone to look for the perfect start to bring the puck up the ice. Guys found their lanes, found openings and went from there.
What was much more interesting was how active all five positions were when attacking in the offensive zone. Defensemen regularly joined in on puck pursuits into the corners and even though forwards do play up front, and defensemen mind the back line, it was not uncommon to see everyone mixing in.
“I think we’ve talked about the predictability of our play, like how we want to break out and a big part of the breakout is our D being involved,” Ruff said. “And then the second part is our forwards knowing when they are involved to make sure that we have their back and have them covered.”
Forwards were mostly aware of making sure to cover the defensive positions when the rearguards (we’re running out of synonyms for defensemen here, ok?) tracked in deep to the offensive zone. Along with how they were able to get in deep, having the green light to fire away up high when chances were presented was apparent as well and led to both Owen Power and Henri Jokiharju scoring in the second period. Both goals came unscreened but with a lot of traffic buzzing around the net and Jokiharju’s was a rocket that went pipe and in. Seeing all of that play out effectively makes for an encouraging start to the preseason.
“It’s nice, I think, for the D especially once you kind of started throwing them in a little bit more, teams give you a little bit more time and space, and that’s when you could kind of start making plays,” Power said. “So, it’s nice to be able to just throw pucks in there and kind of have them turn into scoring chances.”
Against more experienced competition that’ll be a bit harder to do, of course, but all things begin with a single step and given the talent among the blue line group, having them even more involved is a good thing.
Little notes
— The new fourth line group with Sam Lafferty at center with Beck Malenstyn and Nicolas Aube-Kubel on the wings came as advertised. They were on top of the puck at all times, played physically and fast and even created a goal when Lafferty cashed in on a Malenstyn rebound off a rush through an in-shock Penguins defense in the middle of their five-goal blitz in the second.
— Bo Byram was all kinds of hyped up in this game which was a bit of a negative early on with some turnovers and scattered positioning, but as the game wore on, he played very well next to Power. He’s likely going to be partnered with Rasmus Dahlin to start the season, but until he’s back in the mix (shortly, they’re hoping) working with Power is the next logical guy.
Considering their top four defensemen are all lefthanded shots, having Dahlin and Power as the guys to play on their off-hand side gives them a lot of freedom. For what it’s worth, Byram said after the game that even though he’s cool with playing either side, he much prefers the left and the coaches have made sure to put him there.
— Although the trio of Peyton Krebs at center with Lukas Rousek and Jiri Kulich on the wings didn’t generate a goal, we got to see more of Krebs’ offensive instincts come out with some slick passes and a couple of real good shots. Kulich wasn’t shy when given the chance to shoot and looked like a threat to score whenever he did. Keep Krebs and Kulich in mind for a potential building block for a third line set.