Tampa, Fla. (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres and Lightning both played 40 minutes of disjointed hockey on Thursday, resulting in a 2-1 lead for Tampa Bay.
With 13:26 left in regulation, Victor Hedman took a penalty and the Sabres were absolutely awful early on the power play.
However, Tage Thompson got the puck in the neutral zone and just took over the play. He turned on the jets, got to the top of the left circle and beat Andrei Vasilevskiy up high to tie the game at 2-2.
The teams got to overtime, and it was Thompson imposing his will again. He got around the defense with speed, and Nikita Kucherov hooked him as he tried to go high. Vasilevskiy got a piece of it, and the Sabres got a 4-on-3 power play.
Rasmus Dahlin says Matt Ellis drew up a perfect play and they executed it well. Casey Mittelstadt had the puck in the slot, while Dahlin flied the lane on the left side. Mittelstadt gave Dahlin the perfect pass for the layup, and a 3-2 overtime win.
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To start the game, Peyton Krebs was back centering Zemgus Girgensons and Eric Robinson. Sabres head coach Don Granato says it was for this game and the matchup.
Granato says he wanted to shorten the bench in the third period, and Krebs, Kyle Okposo and Jeff Skinner all got one shift at 5-on-5.
For most of the game, I thought both teams played like they had a grenade on the end of their sticks, and there was very little flow. The player I thought made some good plays was Krebs. I didn’t see at all what Granato was seeing to bench him.
Skinner? I totally get it.
Buffalo scored two power play goals to give them six in six games. They’re 6-for-18 in that time.
I thought this was a gritty win for the Sabres. They had to weather a storm to start the game, and got behind 1-0 early. However, just 2:47 later, Alex Tuch stole a pass in the slot and tied the game.
The Sabres were better after that.
As I mentioned, the Sabres just didn’t seem in sync, but between getting great goaltending from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and getting sticks and bodies into shooting and passing lanes, they did what was necessary to get a win.
Buffalo has now won 4-of-5 games.
Zach Benson got another penalty in this game that he did deserve.
There have been plenty of penalties the 18-year-old hasn’t deserved this season, though. Benson plays hard, and it’s what got him to the NHL at such a young age.
It has only been Benson and the first three picks overall of the 2023 NHL Draft to play in the NHL this season. He says it gets a little aggravating when he gets called for penalties that didn’t happen.
"You get frustrated, and there’s no secret to getting rid of the frustration. But at the end of the day, you've still gotta play your game and go out there and battle," said Benson on Thursday.
"Penalties are going to happen, and it would be nice if they didn’t call such soft ones, at times. But they’re going to happen, and we have to go out there and play our game, and try not to do too much to take a stick infraction."
You sometimes have to wonder if referees see that Benson is only 18-years-old, playing as the second-youngest player in the league only to Chicago Blackhawks center Connor Bedard.
"It’s my first year in the league, and maybe they’re just trying to get a message across," Benson pondered. "Tenacity is a big part of my game, and getting pucks back and lifting guys' sticks, that’s a big part of my game. It’s definitely not something I’m going to be taking out of it soon."
The Sabres will get Friday off before playing the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday and the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday.
