Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - The Buffalo Sabres got back on the winning track Tuesday night with a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks in Game 2 of their four-game Western Conference road trip.
Since the Sabres kicked off their second half of the regular season, the team has continued its up-and-down play by going 3-3-0 in that span. Where Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff feels most disappointed with their play over this recent stretch is the group's inability to consistently win 50-50 battles, especially around the net.
"The puck battles around the net cost us dearly in the Seattle [Kraken] game [on Monday], and really felt, as a group, that we wanted to go out and compete in a morning skate [on Tuesday]. Put in a couple drills, 1-on-1 compete, 2-on-2 compete, get to the net, and at the same time, have the defense boxing players out, get some physicality. It was the focus of the morning skate, the focus of the game was win your battles and skate. And I thought, on a whole, our club skated well, the compete around the net was good," said Ruff on Wednesday when he joined the "Jeremy and Joe Show" for his weekly appearance on WGR. "The type of goals that we gave up in the Seattle game we basically eliminated, and I thought it was a it was a tough hockey game."
The extra work in Tuesday's morning skate paid off. Despite the Sabres falling behind in the second period, Buffalo managed to find an extra gear in the final frame, scoring twice and securing a win.
Ruff felt Tuesday's win over the Canucks was one that can help right the ship for the group, and a victory the team needed when facing adversity.
"You look at their first goal, it takes a crazy bounce off the stanchion in the glass and comes back to the net front. Another goal, we go down, we should be getting a scoring opportunity. We break a stick, we come back to our end, we've got a guy with a broken stick. So to fight through that, play a real sound third period and score a couple goals to end up winning the hockey game, it's a big step in the right direction," said Ruff with Jeremy White and Joe DiBiase.
Related
Tage Thompson's play on the ice has been improving lately, as he's currently riding a four-game point streak. This included another goal on Tuesday in the win in Vancouver.
Ruff sees the freedom that Thompson has been playing with on the wing, which has resulted in more shots to the net than he normally would playing center.
"I really believe that he's getting more opportunities, he's getting more shots, freed up to skate more," Ruff said. "An injury kind of pushed him out there, but he was averaging less than two shots a game."
Despite the win Tuesday in Vancouver, the Sabres are still dead-last in the Eastern Conference standings, sitting 11 points back of the final Wild Card spot.
While Ruff is well-aware of the position the Sabres are in overall in the Eastern Conference, he remains confident the team can get still get back into the playoff mix if they can string together some more consistency and stack some wins.
"Treat it one game at a time. Try to put a run together," Ruff said. "I really feel if we can put a five-, six-game run together, we can get ourselves back in the picture and battle ourselves back into this."
The Sabres continue their road trip on Thursday with a matchup against the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome. Faceoff is slated for 9 p.m., with pregame coverage starting at 8 p.m. on the radio home of the Sabres - WGR Sports Radio 550.