One game does not an NHL season make.
However, Buffalo Sabres fans should take solace in the fact that Eichel and Company appear to have fully and completely accepted new head coach Ralph Krueger's high pressure strategy.
We saw glimpses of Krueger's structured system in six exhibition games, but it was hard to tell whether the Sabres were executing the system of if their opponents were playing AHL-heavy lineups.
In other words, were the impressive offensive efforts put forth by the Sabres in the exhibition games a false positive?
I'll be honest. I reserved judgement until I saw a regular season performance featuring the final roster of 13 forwards, 7 D and 2 goalies.
On Thursday night in Pittsburgh, the new-look Sabres auditioned their structed defensive front against future Hall of Famers Sidney Crosby, Geno Malkin, Patric Hornqvist, Kris Letang, Jake Guentzel, Matt Murray and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Crosby and Malkin are ruthless assassins. They live for tearing out the beating hearts of opponents and taking bloody bites from it while they watch their foes collapse to the floor in agony.
Numbers 87 and 71 have made careers out performing surgery with no anesthesia on the defensive zone coverages on their opponents. When you make mistakes against Sid, Geno and the Penguins they cause you embarrassment, depression and sudden death when they continually light the red lamp behind your broken coverage.
The Sabres faced the Penguins twice during the NHL exhibition season, winning both games. For the third time in 18 days, Eiche and Company would face 100% of the Pittsburgh Penguins, not 50% of the Wilkes Barre Scranton Baby Penguins.
Talk about a stress test! Jeezus!
The third time was the charm for Ralph Krueger, who earned his first NHL win in his first game coached for the Buffalo Sabres.
"I'm just so proud and pleased of the effort that we had in all areas today," Krueger said Thursday night. "We began with a fury in the first 10 minutes, dominating, and to get the lead was good for our confidence. The guys never let off the gas. We stayed on our toes right through to the finish line.
"Our specialty teams really got us the win in the end. Great PKs, strong power play and the goaltending - everybody contributed; everybody participated and we played it from start to finish. Very pleased with that effort"
The win in Pittsburgh was the final shovel full of dirt to be thrown on the casket of Phil Housley's defensive zone cluster-F that the Sabres were forced to try to execute for 82 games in 2018-19.
Housley's system was helter skelter on ice. A veritable fire drill that reduced professional hockey players into struggling novices.
The forwards and defensemen played flat-footed and were often times confused as to where their assignments were. I'll never forget watch Sabres D-men attempting to jump, skate with opposing centers at the defensive blue line then play man to man on that centerman throughout the shift. It was chaos to watch. Housley's forwards and D were ambivalent and grew to distrust the system after they were caght out of position and their gaffes led to goals against. Opponents ran pick plays, rubs and cycles to elude and confuse Sabres defenders.
On the flip side, Krueger's system is based on fundamentals and is more simplistic and less conceptual. The "Keep it simple, stupid" fundamentals of Krueger's system appear to have unlocked confidence, fury and creativity of the Sabres.
We saw the Sabres work it to perfcetion against Crosby, Malkin and the highly offensive Penguisn on Thursday night.
The Sabres attacked the Penguins with an ultra-tight forecheck and applied heavy pressure in the defensive zone. Former Penguin Conor Sheary gave the Pens an early lead which coincided with he and his teammates stifling and smothering Crosby Incorporated throughout the entire game. The Sabres dominated the play and owned the puck for large stretches in the game. The Krueger counter attack off turnovers kept the Penguins defending while in reverse for the entire game. The Sabres played north while the Penguins played south hockey.
There were long stretches in the game where Crosby and Malkin were visibly frustrated and pissed off at Sabres' shut down D pair Jake McCabe and Rasmus Ristolainen, who cut the power cord to the dangerous Crosby Trio.
When the forwards come home to support the D, the Sabres are going to be a dangerous team to play against. On Thursday night, we saw Krueger's plan manifest itself against argiably the best offensive team in the NHL. The results were impressive. The forwards backchecked, fore checked and were pains in the ass to play against in all three zones. The D turned over pucks at the D blue line and threw tape to tape startch passes to their forwards in flight.
It was truly a sight for sore eyes for long suffering Sabres fans.
Now hat we have seen the evidence that the new system is successful when executed properly by all 18 skaters on the ice, we need to see it on every shift and in every game.
"We've been working on very high-pressure systems so you need to be in excellent shape, which all of these guys came into training camp in," said Krueger. "We need to keep our feet moving and skating all the time.
"It's a lot to ask day in and day out, but these guys are committed to do that, and it really took away the room and space that Pittsburgh likes to play in. We were able to do that right through the game."
**
The Sabres were home and chilled out of Friday night. Their next opponent, the New Jersey Devils hosted the struggling Winnipeg Jets on Friday night. The Jets lost badly in Manhattan on Thursday night. Devils owned a 4-0 lead against the Jets and then puked up their four goal lead. The Jets went in to win the game in the shootout. The pissed off Devils will charter to Buffalo in the wee hours of Saturday morning and will face the Sabres at 7:00pm Saturday night.
Devils starting goalie Cory Schneider was injured in the loss and is doubtful to play in Buffalo.
Advantage Buffalo.
Saturday night's dance with the Devils marks the 49th home-opener in the Sabres' 50 year franchise history.
The Sabres are 21-20-7 all-time in their first home game of the season. Eichel and Company are looking for the first win in a home-opener since the team’s 5-2 win vs. Philadelphia on January 20, 2013 (lockout shortened season).
The Sabres have previously opened their home schedule against the Devils once in franchise history, a 2-1 win on January 25, 1995 featuring Sabres goals by Donald Audette and Wayne Presley and a 29-save performance by Dominik Hasek.
With a win versus Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier and Devils on Saturday night, Ralph Krueger would become the fourth Sabres head coach to earn wins in his first two games as the team’s head coach, joining Marcel Pronovost (October 13-15, 1977), Scotty Bowman (October 11-13, 1979) and Jimmy Roberts (December 9-12, 1981).
No Sabres head coach has won each of his first three games with the team, but Bowman won the first three games of his final stint as the team’s head coach from January 17 to 22, 1986.
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