Mike Harrington: First win gives Sabres an opening to grab some more this week


The Buffalo hockey season can now calmly continue.

Amazing what a couple of shots, a couple of goals and one win can do for a team. The Sabres were able to enjoy a day off Sunday and can look at the upcoming week as a good chance to quickly turn their campaign around.

The Sabres are in Pittsburgh on Wednesday for a TNT game against the Penguins, and the network had to be shaking its collective heads about the possibility of an 0-4 team appearing on its telecast in mid-October.

Studio analyst/podcaster Paul Bissonnette would have to be minding his F-bombs, but you can nonetheless imagine the shade he still would have been throwing at this team had it laid an egg Saturday against the Florida Panthers.

That didn't happen. After getting none of the first six points available this season, the Sabres got two they desperately needed with a full-marks, 5-2 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champions in KeyBank Center.

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Sabres right winger Alex Tuch checks the Panthers' Anton Lundell during the second period at KeyBank Center on Saturday. Harry Scull Jr., Buffalo News

When head coach Lindy Ruff called his first win for Buffalo in 11½ years a "stress reliever," he wasn't kidding. The Sabres avoided the first 0-4-0 start in franchise history and, suddenly, the next six points are definitely reachable.

The Penguins are 1-2, have given up an NHL-worst 13 goals thus far, and the Sabres have gone 5-2-2 in the the last nine meetings with them. The Sabres head to Columbus on Thursday and they're 4-1-2 in the last seven visits to Nationwide Arena. They close the trip Saturday in Chicago's United Center and are 5-0-1 in their last six overall against the Blackhawks.

Saturday was only Game 4 of 82, but the Sabres had an urgency about them far from what you normally see in mid-October. It felt like it was getting late awfully early and they needed a win, any win. So let's not quibble over who wasn't on the ice on the other side. These were, quite frankly, the Partial Panthers.

Spencer Knight was in goal and was not a remote facsimile of Sergei Bobrovsky. Captain Sasha Barkov was injured Thursday in Ottawa trying to prevent an empty-net goal and wasn't in the lineup. Neither was captain and Gnat Supreme Matthew Tkachuk, felled by the flu.

And don't forget all the subtractions the Panthers have had since they hoisted the Cup in June. They lost defensemen Brandon Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson in free agency. And their bottom six looks quite different without Ryan Lomberg, Steven Lorentz, Kevin Stenlund and old friend Kyle Okposo.

All that said, there were still plenty of guys who hoisted the Cup on the other side Saturday, and they were not the better team.

"That was a huge game for us tonight. We knew we needed to win that one," Tage Thompson said. "And I think everyone stepped up. It would be easy to put a lot of pressure on yourself and kind of cave on that and panic, especially when down early (1-0). We didn't do that. We had a lot of composure. And I think that speaks volumes to the guys in the room and the confidence and the belief in each other."

Thompson had a great game, and his slapper that leaked through Knight gave the Sabres the lead for good, 2-1 at 17:27 of the first period. It came 41 seconds after Jordan Greenway had willed his way to a tying goal with great work in front and a bar-down backhander.

After scoring just three goals in the first 196 minutes, 45 seconds of the season, the Sabres tallied thrice more in the next 4:48 of their season. After three goals on the season's first 82 shots on goal, the Sabres had three on their first seven shots Saturday.

They've really played five strong periods out of the last six, with that darn third period Thursday against Los Angeles really sticking out as a 20-minute stretch that cost them two points the visitors didn't really deserve.

"You get one goal, you start to feel good, especially after a night where you feel like you could have had a few and the goalie robs you, or you just get a little unlucky," Thompson said. "I think that's where you just got to stick with it. You don't change anything, don't look for extra passes. And I think for me, that was kind of my focus tonight, was to keep shooting."

Greenway was an absolute beast down low and showed some soft hands with the nifty shot to get Buffalo even.

"We'll take our chances to play the way that we have in the last two games," Greenway said. "I think more times than not, we're going to come out on top. And that just has to be our focus. We have to continue to play a smart hockey game. Keep things simple. Eventually, when we start to wear a team down, our skill can take over. But some games are going to call for a gritty win."

Ruff got his first win for Buffalo since Feb. 15, 2013 – five days before the firing that ended his last stint here. He had a great night, with his decision to go with 11 forwards and seven defenseman working like a charm. With ample rest time before the next game, he pushed his stars hard to get a win, and five players had more than 20 minutes of ice time. But he got great work on the top line from Peyton Krebs and another fine game in goal, this one from Devon Levi.

There were 10 players with one point, and Alex Tuch had two, topped by an empty-net goal. Guys like Dylan Cozens and Jiri Kulich, neither of whom had a point, had strong games. Kulich is going nowhere, even when JJ Peterka returns to the lineup.

"We could get frustrated, you could deviate," Ruff said of the 0-3 start. "But I thought our guys were pretty locked into trying to play the right way. And for the most part, I thought for 60 minutes we did. We got rewarded."

More rewards up for grabs this week.
 
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