Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – One of the biggest improvements in this year’s Buffalo Sabres team is the penalty kill.
Buffalo is off to a great start at 90.9%, which is ninth in the NHL behind the eight teams that remain perfect to start the year.
The Sabres killed three of four penalties against the New York Rangers during Thursday's season opener, and they shouldn’t even have been on the power play because Zach Benson was called for hooking when it was obvious he was having his stick held.
Since then, Buffalo went 3-for-3 against the New York Islanders, and really seemed to frustrate the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday, going 4-for-4.
Sabres head coach Don Granato used Jordan Greenway, Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch, Kyle Okposo, Peyton Krebs and Tyson Jost up front on Tuesday. On the back end, it was Erik Johnson, Connor Clifton, Owen Power and Mattias Samuelsson.
Tuch says he’s really liked the improvement he’s seen.
"It’s been a huge focus for us," said Tuch following Wednesday's practice. "We were terrible last year, it's plain and simple. We were a really bad penalty kill last year. It was something we really focused on during camp, because we wanted to improve on it. We couldn’t get any worse on it, in our eyes, so we thought it could be easy adjustments.
"We didn’t change anything too drastically, but it was a big mindset. It’s simplifying, keeping everything to the outside."
Johnson, Clifton and Greenway are new to the penalty kill, and Tuch feels that was huge.
"Bringing a guy like Erik Johnson in, he’s a huge guy that’s unbelievable in the penalty kill, a veteran in the league," he said. "We’ve leaned on him to see what he thought and what they did in Colorado, and picking his brain."
It seemed the reason the Sabres frustrated Tampa Bay’s power play on Tuesday night is they got sticks in passing lanes all night.
"'Tommer' and 'Greenie' led our PK last night, and they were unbelievable getting sticks in lanes, and forced the power play out of their comfort zone," Tuch said. "They didn’t run around, and kept it packed in. It was huge."
Sabres head coach Don Granato says other components went into it.
"I loved the reads on when to be aggressive, and moments where you can be assertive," said Granato on Wednesday. "And also moments when you had to be patient. If anything, we made the power play a little bit impatient last night."
Granato talks a lot about habits and details, and now the focus has turned to different things.
You may have noticed that Rasmus Dahlin wasn’t on the penalty kill. It’s not that he’s not good at it, but now they have Johnson and Clifton. That means Dahlin is fresher, because it’s minutes he doesn’t have to play.
Dahlin did have a good game, leading them play a very good defensive game as a team. Buffalo gave up very few Grade-A chances to a team that is very good at creating offense. You aren’t going to totally shut down a team, but when Tampa Bay had some great chances, Devon Levi was right there to make a huge save.
Meanwhile, Samuelsson didn’t practice on Wednesday with an upper-body injury. Granato also made some players stay off the ice for rest, including Levi, Dahlin, Clifton, Johnson, Greenway and Casey Mittelstadt.
The Calgary Flames arrived in Buffalo late Monday night, and are practicing on Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s game.
