@boosbuzzsabres
The lineup to begin last night's game in Florida against the Panthers was somewhat of an eyebrow-raiser to begin with as it featured 11 forwards and seven defensemen skating for Buffalo. Yes, we've seen it before and other teams have used it before, including the Tampa Bay Lightning last season, as mentioned Sabres head coach Ralph Krueger post-game, but still, that set-up is a little difficult to wrap your hands around. Especially when you're accustomed to Krueger religiously sticking to his lines and pairings this season.
Last night, however, the hockey coach became a mad scientist after forward Evan Rodrigues went down with an injury during his first shift on the ice. Krueger did some juggling on the blueline to start the game as he tried to work in seven defensemen while double-shifting able bodies up front. But not long after Rodrigues went down he was forced to let it all hang out and rolled with various concoctions up front that were full of surprises, including defenseman Brandon Montour taking a regular shift at left wing.
"The way we play," said Krueger to the media after their 5-2 win, "it's about finding your role in the group. Sometimes d-men will be up in the front, forwards will be back and vice-versa. I think it's an easy style of play that you can step into that."
We're not sure whether it was easy or not, and/or whether Krueger's positivity was meant to cloak just how difficult it was for all parties involved but he was firm in his belief that going 11/7 was the way to go for that game. The coach mentioned the return of defenseman Zach Bogosian for his first game of the season after injury and being unsure of how he'd respond. Krueger also had this back-to-back in mind saying that he wanted to keep his defensemen fresh and also said a bit later that the opposition wasn't sure what was coming at them in a situation like that.
Krueger started out with the familiar featuring Jack Eichel flanked by Jimmy Vesey and Sam Reinhart, a line we've seen a lot of the last few games. The first surprise of the night had Victor Olofsson, who'd played a majority of the season in Vesey's spot, on a line with center Johan Larsson and Zemgus Girgensons. Then came more familiarity with Rodrigues centering Jeff Skinner and Conor Sheary. The other line consisted of rookie Rasmus Asplund centering Casey Mittelstadt and whomever was ready to be double-shifted.
When Rodrigues went down, Krueger put all the forwards in a blender. The line combinations were almost endless when Eichel extended his shift a bit and found Skinner on the Panthers door-step for a tap-in, five-hole to open the scoring. Less than two minutes later, Montour hit the ice with Larsson and Girgensons. Larsson poked the puck away at the Buffalo blueline and got it up to Girgensons who touched a pass of the wall that Montour retrieved in the Florida zone. Montour sent a touch pass back to Girgensons at the Panthers blueline and the "Latvian Locomotive" backed off the defense before sniping one short-side past rookie goaltender Sam Montembeault.
It would be the beginning of a beautiful friendship amongst the trio for most of the rest of the game until Krueger rightfully moved Vesey to that line. Vesey did his part as he corralled a loose puck in the Sabres zone, streaked up ice and banked a pass off the wall to a flying Girgensons who skated hard to the net and poked in his own rebound to make it 5-2 Buffalo.
It worked, but it's highly doubtful they want to go through that again and called up Rochester Americans forward Jean Sebastian Dea this morning for tonight's matchup against the Lightning. No word on whether forward Curtis Lazar will be back in the lineup after watching the Florida game from the presser, and with what transpired last night it isn't even worth guessing what Krueger will do next.
Overall this was the second strong performance in a row by a Sabres team that's trying desperately to get out of the funk they've been in since early November, and who was leading the way? Again?
Eichel.
The Sabres captain may have found out over the course of the last week or so just how much of a beast he really is. There was his dominant four-goal performance in the 4-2 win vs. Ottawa, a meh-performance at Chicago where he scored Buffalo's only goal, a strong individual effort, which included dropping the gloves to try and spark his team, within an atrocious team effort against Minnesota and another strong performance against his hometown Boston Bruins where the Sabres did everything but win. Eichel had the primary assist on the Sabres first goal of the game as he strung along the entire Bruins penalty kill out before snapping a shot on goal where Rasmus Ristolainen was there to put away the rebound.
Last night it was Jack being Jack as he set up Skinner off the rush to open the scoring and scored Buffalo's third goal after controlling the entire ice from the right circle to the wall before pinging a snapshot off of the post and in. To cap things off for him, the 23 yr. old had a secondary assist with meaning as he stole the puck from his own corner sending Olofsson and Reinhart on a give and go that put Olofsson in on a breakaway. The 24 yr. old rookies sniped it past Montembeault for a 4-1 Buffalo lead.
Bogosian played his first game of the season after the recuperation from off season hip surgery had some setbacks. The 29 yr. old veteran d-man put to rest any doubts Kureger may have had about his response after being out so long with a team-high 22:03 of ice-time, an assist, three shots on goal, a hit and two blocked shots. He set the tone early with some rugged play and the team seemed to follow suit. Bogosian was paired with Rasmus Dahlin for much of the night and the 19 yr. old seamed pretty comfortable having a vet like Bogosian there to lean on.
One would be remiss not to mention Buffalo Linus Ullmark. The Swedish netminder was in goal for a third consecutive game and stopped 45 of 47 shots thrown his way by Florida which included a short-handed breakaway by the Panthers. Ullmark easily could have been named the game's No. 1 star, which went to Eichel, and probably should have been the second star, but Girgensons had one of those nights (two goals) that we don't see too often from him. That said, he got the third star and one would think he's pretty happy with the win.
The Sabres close out a three-game road trip with the second of a back-to-back against the Lightning tonight. As mentioned we're really not sure what Krueger has in store lineup-wise but overall confidence seems to be coming back. Three of their goals were pure snipes last night and the other two were products of driving hard to the net. Those are good signs.
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