Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – While chatting with some folks on X, formerly known as Twitter, during Thursday's game, I was very surprised they were talking about how bad the Buffalo Sabres' defense was in their 9-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs. I couldn’t disagree more.
That's why I took it to some of the players and head coach Don Granato on Friday to see how they felt about it.
I thought all six defensemen played very well, and played in unison with the forwards as a five-man unit.
After 40 minutes, Buffalo had only allowed 15 shots on goal from the second-best scoring team in the NHL. Yes, they had three goals, but Devon Levi, arguably, should’ve had two of them.
"Everyone was playing hard defensively. It was more physical than what we usually have been this year, and all five guys coming back and helping with the forwards, doing a great job helping, especially when we were against that Matthews line," said defenseman Mattias Samuelsson on Friday following practice. "We did a pretty good job of eliminating the high scoring chances."
Auston Matthews leads the NHL with 26 goals, but he had one shot in the whole game. Mitch Marner also only had one shot.
There have been many things holding this team back this season to where it's regressed quite a bit. Thursday did show what this team is capable of when they play the way Granato wants them to.
"As a team lately, we've been in our head about our identity and our style. Yesterday is a great example of how we want to play," Samuelsson said.
"We’re going to makes mistakes, everyone is. I’m going to make mistakes. But if we keep working an all five guys are trying to support each other, your teammate will have your back. I think we kind of got away from that a little bit, just the fearlessness to play your game and not be afraid to make a mistake."
There’s no question in what I saw, the Sabres limited their mistakes against Toronto.
"There’s a difference between making a mistake, working hard and making a mistake, being too casual or cute," Samuelsson said. "If you’re working hard and a bad break happens, there’s nothing you can do about it. But I think it’s the sloppy turnovers that have cost us this year, and those are the mistakes we avoided yesterday."
Granato saw much of it the same way. He says the line of Casey Mittelstadt, Jordan Greenway and Zach Benson set the tone.
"The effort was a five-man effort," said Granato on Friday. "I thought Clifton and Owen Power were really good together. You’ve got a real physical guy with an edge in Clifton, and I thought Owen skated really well.
"Three different lines I was comfortable with. I started matching to start the game, and then felt Mittelstadt’s line was killing it, and then felt either one of our Mittelstadt, Cozens or Thompson were skating well enough to track down anybody on the ice and contest them quicker than not."
The Sabres are in New York on Friday, waiting for Saturday’s game, while the Rangers will be busy hosting the Edmonton Oilers.
