Newark, N.J. (WGR 550) - Sabres winger Alex Tuch is feeling better about his game after picking up a "Gordie Howe hat-trick" on Tuesday night in Buffalo's win over the Senators in Ottawa.
Tuch looked like himself right from the start on Tuesday, breaking out of the zone and having Casey Mittelstadt send him in on a 2-on-1, which Jeff Skinner scored on.
Later in the second period, Tuch tipped in a power play tally for his first goal of the season.
Tuch thinks it’s important that Tage Thompson and Zemgus Girgensons also scored by tipping pucks.
"It shows our commitment to good offense, and a simple game that we’re getting to the net, we’re going into battles, we’re screening the goalies and sacrificing," said Tuch following Thursday's practice.
Tuch also felt they had some very big blocked shots against the Senators, which went hand-in-hand with big saves from goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
Before the Senators game, Tuch was feeling frustration with his play. That led the coaching staff to spend some time with him, and head coach Don Granato knew Tuch was ready before the game even started,
'You knew before the game that he was in the right place," said Granato following Thursday's practice. "We had some meetings and did a little video with him to communicate back-and-forth, with him asking him what he’s seeing on this play, here’s what we’re seeing to hopefully give him a better focus. We knew he went into the game with a better focus, so when you see him score you think, 'This is great. He got rewarded for it.' And he looked that way through the rest of the game."
Tuch knew he had to change his mindset.
"I just went in and I wanted to skate hard and work hard, just try to support and play a simpler game," he said. "It was nice that Jeff was able to bury my pass to get me on the board early. You get a little bit of confidence with that and you just keep rolling."
I’ve always said Tuch is going to be harder on himself than anyone else is, and he agreed.
"You want the best for yourself and for everyone around you, and your teammates. But to get to this level, I really think you have to have high expectations for yourself, and you have to try and come in each and every day and even be better than those expectations, or else you’re not going to have success," Tuch said.
"You have to continue to push yourself to stay in the lineup, to be a dominant player, to produce points. You have that other guy fighting for their life too, and it’s survival of the fittest. If you’re not at your best, you’ll never know what will happen."
When you put too much pressure on yourself, Granato says it can become a negative.
"When he gets down on himself, he can pull himself out of things. You see that, and we see that, and we try to communicate with them as best we can," he said.
"You see it back behind the scenes how much pressure he puts on himself, and a lot of it after a certain amount is negative."
Sabres rookie goalie Devon Levi, once again, missed practice on Thursday with a lower-body injury. Granato still doesn’t seem overly concerned.
"He hasn’t regressed, but it also hasn’t resolved to the point," Granato said. "The soreness hasn’t resolved, and under our situation with three goaltenders, and [Eric] Comrie and 'Uppie' playing well, there’s no sense pushing it based on that. There’s no need to push it, and we’re waiting for more soreness to resolve."
Levi was the only one not at practice on Thursday. The lines at practice looked like this:
Forwards:
Greenway – Thompson – Cozens
Skinner – Mittelstadt – Tuch
Olofsson – Girgensons – Okposo
Jost – Krebs – Peterka
Benson
Defense:
Dahlin – Samuelsson
Power – Jokiharju
Clifton – Johnson
Bryson
