"My sanity needed this."
Those four words typed by our own sbroads24 after the game last night probably could have been uttered by virtually any fan in Sabreland as the Sabres overcame a three-goal deficit twice while on their way to a 5-4 overtime win against the rival Boston Bruins. Buffalo had not beaten the Bruins since December 26, 2015 (0-5-2) in
Jack Eichel's first game as a Sabre back in his hometown of Boston and it looked as if they were headed for another defeat after, what else, a weak start.
It was another harrowing start for Buffalo, which is something we're accustomed to seeing. The Sabres found themselves down 2-0 at the end of the first period and were down 3-0 as long-time nemesis Brad Marchand scored his second goal of the game only :37 seconds into the second frame.
However, Buffalo began to turn things around when
Jason Pominville scored and Eichel answered a David Pastranak deflection goal to even the period out. The third period was all Buffalo as
Benoit Pouliot scored 6:55 into the final frame and
Evander Kane scored his team-leading sixth goal of the year to knot the game at 4-4.
The cool part about the third period was that this might be the Sabres team that coach Phil Housley had in mind. That period was clearly their best of the season thus far and it's a shame that it took this long for it to finally come out. Buffalo controlled the play against Boston for most of the period outshooting them by a 15-6 margin and outscoring them 2-0. Passes out of the zone were mostly crisp as were those through the neutral zone and the combination created a controlled breakout which had the Bruins backpedaling the entire period.
Neither Pouliot’s goal nor Kane’s were pretty plays but they both started with some pretty good forechecking and defenseman
Jake McCabe sending pucks towards the net. On the first one, McCabe whiffed on a pass to
Sam Reinhart but the puck found the stick of Pouliot who was in the slot and he made no mistake. On the second, McCabe sent a pass weak-side where Kane redirected a dribbler that barely made it over the goal line.
In overtime the Sabres simply dominated.
Two Bruins—forward David Pastrnak and defenseman Tory Krug—got caught on the ice for over two minutes in overtime as the Sabres controlled the play and were able to make two line changes during that time.
Ryan O’Reilly was the hero as he peeled to the front of the net and buried the game-winner on a backhand, but every Buffalo player who touched the puck in those two-plus minutes was responsible for basically making it an extended 3-on-1.
Pouliot had himself a breakout game, easily playing his best game in a Sabres uniform.
Kyle Okposo was also noticeable for the right reasons which included a quickness to the puck we hadn’t seen since before suffering his concussion last season. He clanked one off the crossbar with a smidge under :30 seconds to play. Defenseman
Marco Scandella was all over the ice with he and d-partner
Rasmus Ristolainen finally looking as if they found some top-pairing chemistry. Scandella had the primary assists on Eichel's goal and Ristolainen was a plus-3 in a game-high 29:40 of ice time.
Although this was a great, and surprising, comeback win for Buffalo, they still have some issues to iron out. One of them was summed up well when fellow hockey buzzard, Wetbandit1 wrote, “I just don’t get why the Sabres have to be down by 2 or 3 goals before they start playing like they’re capable of playing.”
And there’s the rub.
This is an NHL where parity rules and any team is capable of doing what the Sabres did last night. Buffalo still has a ton of work to do just to get above ground as they dug themselves a deep hole in the first eight games. They’re still having trouble coming out of the gate strong and their goaltending hasn’t been the greatest either. And there still are a few too many passengers. But this is something very strong to build off of.
In addition to a big confidence boost, Housley may have found some mixes in the lineup he has to work with. His line combinations in the top-six were interesting and seemed to work out rather well. Eichel was between two big, fast powerforwards in Kane and
Justin Bailey while O’Reilly was flanked by Pouliot and Pominville. Five-on-five that group accounted for seven points on four goals and three assists.
He moved McCabe (2 assists, plus-1 rating) up to the second pairing with
Matt Tennyson (who still has some issues) while 24 yr. old rookie
Victor Antipin was with 29 yr. old journeyman
Taylor Fedun. Both of them looked very good in their third-pairing roles as they displayed a quickness to the puck while making some good decisions with it as well.
The Sabres are home on Tuesday to faceoff against a beatable Detroit Red Wings club before travelling to Columbus, Ohio for the second game of a back-to-back against the Blue Jackets on Wednesday. They should have gained a boatload of confidence with the win last night, but you're only as good as the game you're playing that night.
A win like that against the Bruins could represent a huge step back towards respectability but only if they can follow through with a strong game (and win) against the Red Wings.
That said, I believe the comeback and win saved some sanity amongst the faithful. Which is a good thing.
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