Tage Thompson lifts Sabres to win over Jack Hughes in Olympics return: 3 thoughts
Hughes pulled Thompson onto the ice for a pre-game ceremony celebrating Team USA's gold medal.
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Tage Thompson had a hand in both goals in the Sabres' win over the Devils. Ishika Samant / Getty Images
Tage Thompson didn’t get to the Buffalo Sabres’ hotel in New Jersey until after 2 a.m. Wednesday. He spent the day and evening Tuesday at the White House meeting the president with his Team USA teammates and then attending the State of the Union. The night before, he was at a club in Miami celebrating the team’s gold medal victory deep into the night. And the night before that was spent in a celebratory blur in Milan after Team USA’s 2-1 overtime win over Canada in the gold medal game.
The team would have excused him from morning skate. He was actually late to the bus, which led to some ribbing from his teammates. A few of his teammates weren’t expecting him at the skate at all.
“I was wondering where he was and then all of a sudden he just started walking in the snow to us,” Sabres forward Peyton Krebs said. “Kind of shows the character of the guy and how bad he wants to help us win here.”
Lindy Ruff wasn’t sure what to expect from Thompson in the Sabres’ game against the New Jersey Devils. Given the few weeks he spent playing a grueling tournament in Italy and the few days he’d spent celebrating, he obviously wasn’t arriving in perfect form Wednesday. The plan was to monitor him early in the game and manage his ice time. And yet he ended up playing just over 19 minutes, scoring a goal on a blistering wrist shot and then setting up Krebs for the game-winning goal as Buffalo won 2-1.
“Didn’t feel great out there, but no better way to find it than jumping right into it,” Thompson said after the game.
Before the game, the Devils had a pre-game ceremony to celebrate Jack Hughes and the overtime goal he scored to help the United States win a gold medal at the Olympics. Before giving a speech to the fans in New Jersey, Hughes went over to the Sabres’ bench and grabbed Thompson, his Team USA teammate, wanting him to share in the celebration. After Hughes finished his speech, the two had a ceremonial puck drop to conclude the pre-game ceremony.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” Thompson said. “He’s a class act. Cares about his teammates. Cares about his country, his team. Obviously he scores the overtime winner and that’s supposed to be a moment for just him. For him to include me in that was really special. I definitely appreciated that. We battled through something together. We’re going to be able to share that moment for the rest of our lives. We’re linked together with all of those guys.”
Then in the third period, Hughes coughed up a puck while skating out of the defensive zone. It ended up on Thompson’s stick. He took it the other way and saucered a pass over to Krebs, who swatted it out of the air and finished the play with a goal.
“I saw (Thompson) with the puck, so go to the net and good things happen,” Krebs said.
Thompson finished the game with a goal and an assist, six shot attempts, three shots on net, four scoring chances and three high-danger chances. Whatever Olympic rust he had, he found a way to get through it.
“If somebody earned a day off today it would have been him, but it tells about his character,” Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen said. “He’s always there for us, his teammates. He’s a big part of this team and he knows it. He’s one of the big leaders. I feel like everybody knows that in hockey that there’s never going to be a perfect day. He knows how big a part he is on this team. He wanted to be there every game for the guys.”
On Wednesday morning, Thompson spoke about his Olympic experience, the gold-medal win, the celebration and some of the backlash the team got in the aftermath of the win. But when he sat at his locker in the visiting locker room after the win, he seemed to be settling back into the reality of what he and his Sabres teammates are pushing toward. The win gave the Sabres 72 points in 58 games, pushing them a little bit closer to their goal of making the playoffs. It was also their 27th regulation win, the second-most in the Eastern Conference. Buffalo is now third in the Atlantic Division. As the buzz of that gold-medal win and the celebration starts to wear off, Thompson has a chance to help the Sabres get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2011.
“As fun as that was, I’m really excited to be back with these guys competing and working toward making a playoff push here,” Thompson said.
Quick hits
1. Right from the start of this game, Luukkonen was tested and looked sharp. He was making his first start in almost a month between an injury and the Olympic break, but a few cross-ice saves in the first period showed he was locked in. He ended up stopping 27 of the 28 shots he faced and nine of the 10 high-danger shots that the Devils had. This could have been a different game without a few of those early saves.2. Buffalo’s power play is still an issue. The Sabres went 0-for-3 on the man advantage in this game, mustering just three shot attempts and two shots on goal in six minutes at five-on-four. Entries were again an issue. It didn’t come back to bite them in this game, but it definitely could in future tight games.
Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin looked sharp on the power play for their respective countries at the Olympics. Maybe with some practice time they can figure out how to make some of that success translate back to the NHL.
3. There was some good and bad from Buffalo’s blue line in this game. Owen Power had a tough shift toward the end of the game that led to the Devils scoring the goal that made it 2-1. On the flip side, the Sabres had a 10-4 advantage in scoring chances and a 7-1 advantage in high-danger chances during Michael Kesselring’s five-on-five minutes. That was an encouraging sign given the way he was struggling before the break. Also, Mattias Samuelsson continues to be a workhorse for the Sabres. He had four shots on goal, and the Sabres had a 16-5 advantage in scoring chances during his five-on-five minutes.
Up next: The Sabres have a back-to-back on Friday and Saturday with road games against the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning.