Buffalo N.Y. (WGR 550) - The Buffalo Sabres welcomed the New York Islanders to town on Tuesday night for the second of three meetings this year. The Islanders won the first game of the season series, 4-1, at UBS Arena back on Dec. 30.
The 2021-22 Islanders season has been a rough one to this point, as they entered Tuesday night with a record of 17-19-6, good for sixth place in the Metropolitan Division.
Although both teams are a long way off a playoff spot, the Islanders sat two points ahead of the Sabres in the Wild Card standings.
The game started a bit slow for both teams, but did result in two goals and a tied game going into the second period. Kyle Okposo scored the Sabres' goal for his 10th goal of the year. In the second, things started to take off when Tage Thompson scored a shorthanded marker, and Alex Tuch scored a buzzer-beater on the power play to make it 3-2, Sabres.
In the third period Buffalo began to crumble a bit by conceding a tying goal early on. This has been a trend of the team lately, however, they continued to battle and Victor Olofsson found the scoresheet for the first time in 31 games to take the lead.
The Sabres eventually added a pair of empty-net goals to round out the scoring.
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This game proved to be a learning point for the Sabres, as they were able to re-establish a late lead to win the game.
Here are three observations from this game:
1.) Converting with special teams
In the last few weeks, the Sabres' special teams were anything but. They couldn’t convert on the power play and were abysmal on the penalty kill, but now things have seemed to turn around.
In this game against the Islanders, the Sabres were perfect on the penalty kill and scored once on two power play chances. Along with being perfect when shorthanded, Thompson added his first-career shorthanded goal and the third shorthanded goal for the Sabres this season.
Over the past three games, the Sabres have a penalty kill percentage of 85% and a power play percentage of 33%. Along with these great numbers, the way the team looked in these situations is exciting because of the chances and goals created.
This improvement also helps the team in a more general aspect of being able to control play in their own zone confidently, which is something they’ve struggled with this season.
2.) Steadiness on the blue line
The Sabres have had constant problems with the injury bug this season, leading to holes everywhere in the lineup.
The defensive side of things has been no exception, seeing Colin Miller and Will Butcher out long-term, and players like Robert Hagg and Jacob Bryson in and out of the lineup with short-term injuries.
With these issues, the team was forced to call up players like Mattias Samuelsson and Casey Fitzgerald in a longer-term scenario than usual. However, during their time in the spotlight, they have thrived together as a pair, and have been one of the better pairings in their own zone.
While they have had their moments of looking like the two inexperienced NHL rookies that they are, they have shined in other moments by stopping high danger chances or creating them on the offensive side of the puck.
3.) Closing out a game
The Sabres were finally able to close out a game in the third period.
While it’s happened at other points in the season, most of the time, Buffalo leads going into the third ends in a loss. While it almost happened in this game, the team re-grouped after surrendering the tying goal and scored not one, but three more of their own to seal the game.
After the game, players like Tuch and Thompson said that these kinds of wins are great for team morale, and are learning points for everyone no matter where they are in their career.
When a team starts to gain confidence at the end of games like the Sabres are, it will lead to success in the future and be an important building block for the younger players of this team.
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The Sabres are back in action on Thursday night, welcoming the Ottawa Senators to town for the final meeting of the season between the two teams.
Pregame coverage starts at 6 p.m. EST with Schopp and the Bulldog. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. EST on the radio home of the Sabres - WGR Sports Radio 550.
