Mike Harrington: On a new winning streak, Sabres are facing a massive week
The Sabres are 13-1 in a 14-game stretch for the first time in franchise history and took over the No. 1 wild card slot heading into Sunday's play, but Lindy
It's been a long time since the Sabres had a week in KeyBank Center like the one that starts Monday night.
Four games in six days, starting Monday night against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. A nationally televised Wednesday visit by the Philadelphia Flyers. A Thursday night game with the Montreal Canadiens following a pregame reunion with the beloved 2005-06 Sabres. And a Saturday matinee against a Minnesota team that remains in the top 3 of the NHL's overall standings.
The Sabres, who are 14-5-2 at home, have been taking care of business of late against some bad teams. They have forged a new three-game winning streak, against Vancouver, the New York Rangers and Anaheim.
The Canucks and the Ducks, however, put a scare into them with three-goal third periods, and coach Lindy Ruff was borderline irate in the aftermath of Saturday' 5-3 win over an Anaheim team that didn't score its first goal until 4:44 remained.
Sabres right wing Josh Doan, right, dumps the puck past Ducks defenseman Pavel Mintyukov during Saturday's game at KeyBank Center.
Joed Viera, Buffalo News
Part of me says Ruff actually wasn't too unhappy in the rearview mirror. The Sabres are 13-1 in a 14-game stretch for the first time in franchise history and took over the No. 1 wild-card slot heading into Sunday's play. But the coach can still make sure they're not getting too big for their britches.
"We get to talk about a couple big mistakes and sloppy play after a win instead of after a loss. That's the good part of this," Ruff grumbled. "And knowing our standard is a lot higher than that."
The first 55 minutes of Saturday's game were what you expected. The Sabres are good and the Ducks are terrible, now at 0-8-1 in their last nine and 2-11-2 in their last 15. The score was 3-0 and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was in control in the net and on the road to a shutout.
No one in the room was happy about three goals in the final 4:44, just like the Canucks scored thrice in the late going Tuesday. Only after Alex Tuch overpowered the Ducks behind the goal and fed Josh Norris for the empty-netter with 11 seconds left could the Sabres exhale.
"We're still trying to improve every day and keep getting better," said Jack Quinn, who had two of the goals. "We want to kind of keep pushing the limit of what we can get to. We definitely want to clean up the end of games, especially for 'Upie' (Luukkonen). He stood on his head."
The Sabres will need to keep their game much cleaner against the Panthers, even if Brad Marchand remains out of the Florida lineup and Matthew Tkachuk remains on the comeback road rather than making his season debut.
"This is what we've been waiting for," said winger Josh Doan, whose price tag on a new contract seemingly rises every game. "We've been following along the standings and it seems whenever East teams play each other, it ends up in an overtime game or shootout. So it's hard to gain points and gain a little bit of separation from teams. But it's an opportunity for us and a big one where we need to take advantage of being at home.
In Philadelphia on Saturday, the Tampa Bay Lightning opened a rare two-game series against the same opponent with a 7-2 win over the Flyers. The teams meet again on Monday while the Sabres are battling the Panthers.
The Sabres don't meet Tampa Bay until Feb. 3, and have four games left with the Lightning. Monday's visit by the Panthers is the second of four games against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions, and Thursday's visit by Montreal is the first of three games against the Habs this month.
There is a lot of heavy hockey still to be played, but the Sabres' 7-2-2 record against the Atlantic is a big mark in their favor. It's hard to gain ground, however, when you look at Atlantic teams' record in the last 10 games.
The Sabres and Tampa are both 9-1. Toronto is 7-1-2, Detroit is 7-2-1 and Montreal is 6-2-2. That's some kind of hockey.
Doan is playing some kind of hockey, too. His pickpocket of Olen Zellweger in the offensive zone stopped an odd-man rush and directly set up Tage Thompson's second-period goal.
"Pure effort," Ruff said. "Just on the puck, relentless to take it away. Just an awesome job to get it and then got rewarded by the other two guys end up putting it in the back of the net. That's just determination. That's not quitting on a play. ... Just effort alone is A-plus."
"Part of the game I take a lot of pride in is getting back and forcing turnovers," Doan said of a play that departed JJ Peterka simply would not be capable of making. "It's one of those things where you can create a lot of offense from that. ... It's something a lot of our group has taken pride in the last couple games: Hunting back and creating offense off the turnovers."
The Sabres will need more plays like it. Things are really going to be dialed up. Ruff and the players loved the atmosphere Saturday from the sellout crowd, with the coach saying it buoyed his team from the opening faceoff.
"The players kind of rewarded the fans for the energy they put into the building," Ruff said. "We've got an extremely demanding schedule. It's not often you're going to play four games in six nights at home. The players will be tired. I think the fans will be tired after it's over."
Let's see how much reward everyone gets from all the fatigue these next few days will bring.