Sabres send big statement with quick strikes vs. Lightning
They Sabres can contend in the Stanley Cup Playoffs as presently constructed, and you don't even know what new general manager Jarmo Kekalainen has up his sleeve for Friday's trade deadline either.
The Buffalo Sabres have spent nearly three months growing up before our eyes and they're now one of the biggest stories in the NHL.
There are eye-popping numbers all over the place for both individuals and the team. With the club playing at a 104-point pace, the end of the franchise's 14-year playoff drought is trending toward lock status.
Then after watching a game like Saturday's 6-2 destruction of the Tampa Bay Lightning in Benchmark International Arena, you realize this club isn't built just to sneak into the postseason. The Sabres can contend in the Stanley Cup Playoffs as presently constructed, and who knows what new general manager Jarmo Kekalainen has up his sleeve for Friday's trade deadline?
This game was all about Buffalo's best players imposing their will on a Tampa Bay team that entered the night on a 20-2-1 run but got thoroughly trashed on its home ice, where it had won 11 straight.
In the first 15:06 of play, Rasmus Dahlin opened the scoring with a beautiful dipsy-do move in the Tampa Bay zone and a deceptively difficult wrist shot across his body. Josh Norris scored twice and Tage Thompson bulled the net for his 32nd goal of the season.
It was 4-0, and the NHL said it was just the second time in the last 15 seasons Buffalo has done that in the first period on the road. The other was Thompson's five-goal game in Columbus in 2022, when the Sabres led, 6-0, after 20 minutes.
"We came out really hard. We made the right plays," said Dahlin, who had a three-point night. "We play the right way ... and we played so fast. I don't know, maybe they weren't ready or we just took it to another level, which was unreal. It was fun."
"Full team effort. Everyone was rolling, from our goalie to every D-pair to every line up front," Norris said. "I just thought we played a really, really good road game."
The Sabres' big men were dominant while Tampa Bay superstar Nikita Kucherov ended an 11-game point streak. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy's nine-game winning streak was snapped as he gave up five goals on 14 shots in just over 21 minutes.
"No pushback, no urgency, no drive, no attention to detail," said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. "We just gave a decently skilled team so much open ice. I’m surprised they didn’t have 10 (goals). Really, really disappointed with our compete level."
While Vasilevskiy struggled, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 36 saves in the Buffalo net and had what coach Lindy Ruff termed "a silent really good game."
If the likes of Dahlin, Thompson, Norris and Luukkonen are all going at the same time, the Sabres are going to be a hard team to beat.
"They're the leaders. You want to follow them when they're going," said rookie defenseman Zach Metsa, who tallied his second goal and had his first career two-point game. "You want to help them out any way you can. They were great. It was awesome for them to start like that and especially against Tampa Bay."
"I thought tonight we made some good plays and put them in the back of the net, which early on really put them in a bad place," Ruff said of the Lightning. "They tried to press a little bit, we caught up and got on the other side of them and created some even better opportunities."
What's ahead vs. Tampa
The Sabres have two more meetings with the Lightning, both in Buffalo. They're alone in second place in the Atlantic Division, only four points out of the division lead. They haven't been in this kind of high-rent district since 2010."It just shows that we're a really good team and we've known that for a while now," Norris said. "We just reset. Today is a new game and we just go out there and do our things. I think we have a lot of belief in ourselves right now and it's a lot of fun playing."
It's certainly a lot of fun keeping opposing buildings quiet. The Sabres are 16-2-1 in their last 19 on the road, a far cry from the 0-5-2 start they endured this season away from KeyBank Center.
"I feel like we just try to play our game anywhere we are," Dahlin said. "We're just so talented and we just know if we play the right way, good things will happen. And I think we've really understood that now."
Around the boards
- Zach Benson made his return from an upper-body injury and viral illness. He played 13:39 and had an assist but was on the fourth line with Tyson Kozak and Beck Malenstyn. Red-hot Peyton Krebs stayed on the top line with Thompson and Alex Tuch.
- Colorado leads the NHL with 36 regulation wins, and the Sabres are tied with Dallas and Tampa Bay for second with 29. It's the first tiebreaker at the end of the season.
- Once 0-5-2, the Sabres are now 18-11-3 on the road for the season. Only Tampa Bay has more road wins at 19-6-4.
- Eleven Sabres made the scoresheet. Dahlin, Bowen Byram and Jack Quinn all had plus-3 ratings. Tampa Bay defenseman Ryan McDonagh was minus-4.
Next
The Sabres were off Sunday and will return to practice Monday. They have two games left prior to Friday's NHL trade deadline: Tuesday's visit by Jack Eichel and the Vegas Golden Knights to KeyBank Center and Thursday's game at Sidney Crosby-less Pittsburgh.Tuesday's game will be Buffalo's first at home since its Feb. 5 loss to the Penguins. Thompson's Olympic gold medal will be honored in a pregame ceremony.