Mike Harrington: James Reimer's play is another unlikely scenario in bizarre Sabres season
Reimer has won six straight and has been nothing short of brilliant at times. He made just 22 saves Saturday and stopped both shootout attempts.
This Sabres season is just one giant Rubik's Cube. You can turn it any direction to suit your narratives but it feels impossible to truly solve. So many how-is-this-possible issues.
Here's the latest one: Since March 10, the Sabres have beaten five of the NHL's top 10 teams. That's Winnipeg, Washington, Vegas, Tampa Bay and Edmonton. The Lightning were added to the list with Saturday's 3-2 shootout victory in KeyBank Center.
But red flags went up downtown with the Boston Bruins coming into the building for a game Sunday fresh off Saturday's win over Carolina that snapped their 10-game winless streak. That's because the Bruins were part of the NHL's bottom six teams and the Sabres were just 6-7 against a group that consists of Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, Nashville, Chicago and San Jose.
You want to talk about going Full Sabre, that's it right there.
Buffalo Sabres goaltender James Reimer (47) has won six straight starts. Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News
While Ottawa and Montreal look headed to the playoffs, the Sabres are left with consolation prizes, like their 9-4 streak overall and an 11-2 run at home entering Sunday Did you know the Sabres went home Saturday night with 20 home wins this season -- and haven't gotten to 22 since 2010?
For my money, maybe the most improbable individual item of the whole season involves goaltender James Reimer. The 37-year-old, who waived after the October trip to Prague has taken the net from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
Good for Reimer, not so great for the organization given UPL's long-term contract.
Reimer has won six straight and has been nothing short of brilliant at times. He made just 22 saves Saturday and stopped both shootout attempts. It wasn't a particularly busy night but the degree of difficulty of some of the saves was high. Jake Guentzel, for one, might still be looking at the KeyBank rafters after Reimer stoned him with the glove in the second period.
"He's made the big saves at the right time that has allowed us to win games. And you need that," said coach Lindy Ruff. "You look around the league, you need somebody to cover up your mistakes and usually your goaltender's the guy."
Reimer is on his longest winning streak since 2013, when he was the main man in the crease in Toronto. He's a source of calm on the Sabres' back end and he's making the difficult look simple.
"We have this standard right now that we want to play to, and to a guy, we're doing it," Reimer said. "We're making hard plays. When we make mistakes, guys are bailing each other out. It's fun. It's not easy to play, but it (feels) easy to play when you know everyone's pulling on their own."
"Honestly, he’s about to turn into dust with how old he is, so I’m surprised that we’re getting it," joked forward Jason Zucker. "But it’s fun to see. He’s a heck of a guy. He’s a hell of a teammate."
The Lightning were 35-1-1 when leading after two periods heading into Saturday. But the Sabres escaped a too many men on the ice penalty they got nailed with in the final second of the middle period thanks to a big stop by Reimer on Victor Hedman in the first 25 seconds of the third.
Zucker got a tying goal and then Reimer went 2 for 2 in the shootout and got goals from Jack Quinn and Alex Tuch to earn his win.
"Reims has been playing great, and he's been giving us a lot of confidence," said Tage Thompson, he of goal No. 40. "When we're in the D zone and there's a breakdown, he bails us out."
Reimer said he prepares for every game being different and tries to stay in the moment. He knew what he was signing up for here, mostly to mentor Luukkonen and Devon Levi.
Nobody could have envisioned him being the top guy in March, and the fact that he is shows one of the slip-ups of this Buffalo season. But Reimer is playing so well, you have to imagine the Sabres are going to want him back to mentor again next year. Maybe even play a little more too.
"Nothing surprises me anymore. I've been in this league For a long time, and and just when you think you've you've seen it all then, then something surprises you again,: Reimer said. "As an athlete, as a competitor, you love to play and you love to fulfill your role. When my role was coming in here and supporting the guys, and supporting (Luukkonebn) and and trying to mentor guys, you do the best you can in that role.
"And then if they tap you, when they tap you to play games, you know, you go out there and you give it a full show."
It's a shame the Sabres are playing this well this late in the season. That 13-game winless streak in December ruined them and the 0-5-1 slide around the trade deadline put them away for good.
But these games aren't fools' gold either. Come training camp in September, Ruff can reference them. This is how his team should be playing every night.
"We have work to do. Really," Ruff said. "We have work to do as a team, establishing the way we need to play, the way we need to manage the puck, night in, night out, shift after shift. They've wrapped their arms around it.
"We know where we're at. But to become a better team, you've got to take every period, every game you're playing right now, and use it as a stepping stone. And I think you've got to give them a lot of credit for digging in."