Sabres thoughts: Sam Carrick’s role, Tage Thompson’s gift and a looming showdown
Thompson extended his point streak to 10 games as the Sabres held off the Predators for a 3-2 win, their sixth in row.
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Tage Thompson extended his point streak to 10 games as the Sabres held off the Predators for a 3-2 win, their sixth in row.
Timothy T. Ludwig / Imagn Images
Lindy Ruff didn’t hesitate. The Buffalo Sabres were up 3-2 on the Nashville Predators with 34 seconds to play in the third period. The Predators had pulled their goalie and the faceoff was in Buffalo’s defensive zone to the right of Alex Lyon. Ruff sent Sam Carrick over the boards.
The Sabres acquired Carrick late Thursday night in a trade with the New York Rangers. The 34-year old was brought in with a specific role in mind. Buffalo is last in the NHL in faceoff percentage, and Carrick has won 52 percent of his faceoffs in his career. The Sabres needed a right-handed center for their fourth line who could win faceoffs on that side of the ice.
So Ruff sent Carrick over the boards for that critical faceoff against Ryan O’Reilly, who has won 55.6 percent of his faceoffs in his career. Carrick won the faceoff, but the play got away from the Sabres and they iced the puck. That led to another faceoff with 10 seconds left. Carrick won that one, too, to help the Sabres secure their sixth straight win.
“Early on in the game, I was actually struggling in the dot a little bit, just wasn’t finding my groove,” Carrick said. “But definitely glad I won those last two. Obviously, it’s a big part of what they want to see from me when they brought me, so to win two at the end there was nice. But I’ve got to be more consistent throughout the game.”
After the game, Owen Power gave Carrick the Sabres’ player of the game belt. Carrick tried to hand it off to goalie Alex Lyon, but the locker room wouldn’t allow it. Carrick said he’s already felt welcomed by the room and can tell this is a team that’s enjoying the run they’re on.
“This team has obviously done a lot of good things this year,” Carrick said. “It’s the little things that add up that I’m looking to help the team out with.”
Carrick drove up to Buffalo on Friday after the trade became official. He said goodbye to his three kids under the age of seven, unsure of when he would see them again. But he’s thrilled to be joining a team in the middle of the playoff race. He finished with just 8:55 of ice time, with 54 seconds of that coming on the penalty kill. But the Sabres didn’t add him to be a top-of-the-lineup difference maker. They needed him to win faceoffs, add some toughness and help make that fourth line more sound defensively. Games are won on the margins this time of year, and Carrick helped tip this one in their favor with those faceoffs.
“(Faceoffs) add up and they win you hockey games,” Sabres center Tage Thompson said. “They may not look sexy, but it gets the job done. The addition with him has been great. He brings a lot of sandpaper, edge to his game. He’s heavy, wins battles, obviously really good in the faceoff dot. Just a hard guy to play against. I remember when he was all over the league; playing against him was a nightmare. I’m glad he’s on our side now.”
The Sabres didn’t look like themselves at the start of this game. It could have been the atypical 5:30 puck drop or the fact that the Tampa Bay Lightning are next up on the schedule. Whatever the reason, the Sabres started slow, getting outshot 6-2 in the first period while piling up seven giveaways. Then they allowed the game’s first goal early in the second period to fall behind 1-0.
That’s when Thompson, as he has done so often this season, provided the spark. The Predators weren’t giving the Sabres a ton of room to operate in the offensive zone, but Alex Tuch found Thompson with just enough time for him to release a shot that deflected off a Nashville player and into the net. He pumped his fist as the sold-out crowd in Buffalo came to life. Jason Zucker scored less than two minutes later, and the Sabres had control of the game.
“He does things out there that you shouldn’t be able to do at this level against NHL players,” Sabres forward Josh Doan said. “That’s why he is our superstar and a guy we lean on a lot.
“Even on the bench just his poise and we understand we’re one or two Tage shots away from being in the lead or tying the game up.”
Since coming back from winning a gold medal with Team USA at the Olympics, Thompson has four goals and seven points in six games, all of which have been Sabres wins. His point streak is now at 10 games and he has points in 30 of the last 35 games. He now has 34 goals this season.
“Genetic freak,” Tuch said of Thompson this week. “It’s been awesome. He’s an all-time pro. He’s so hungry to get better and he just loves scoring goals. He’s really rounded out his game. He’s strong defensively. He’s a pain in the ass to play against.”
Here’s what else we saw in Buffalo’s win.
• Doan snapped a six-game goal drought with what ended up being the game-winning goal 16 seconds into the third period. The goal was exactly the type of goal that has defined his game this season. He won a battle along the wall on the forecheck to keep the play alive in the offensive zone and then crashed the net. Josh Norris found him with a perfect saucer pass, and Doan converted.
• Norris now has six points in the six games since the Olympic break. A healthy Norris makes a major difference in Buffalo’s lineup. His pass on Doan’s goal was perfect, but his impact was noticeable throughout the game. The Sabres had a 10-3 advantage in scoring chances during his five-on-five minutes.
• The Sabres and Lightning are still tied for first place in the Atlantic Division, with the Lightning coming to Buffalo for a 6 p.m. puck drop on Sunday. That game could be one that helps decide the division. The Sabres just handed the Lightning a 6-2 loss last weekend, and that game got a bit heated at that end.
“We’re going to have incredible energy,” Ruff said. “Two teams get to play that are right next to each other in the standings. We had a hell of a game down there and you know they’re going to be looking to come back at us for the way that game ended up. This is really what you would ask for. You want a team like that. You want to be able to play. I’m looking forward to it.”