Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres don’t have to face the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday with a six-game losing streak. They snapped their losing skid on Friday night with a solid 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers on home ice.
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Friday's game was interesting right from the start when Dylan Cozens lined up head-to-head against Connor McDavid. Cozens and his linemates, Drake Caggiula and Vinnie Hinostroza, did a terrific job playing at 5-on-5, making the best player in the game invisible until the final eight minutes of the game.
What I found more interesting is how Sabres head coach Don Granato decided that it was the right thing to do.
“It started a couple of days ago when I watched some clips with Dylan, and I finished the clips and I asked him the question, if he was ready to play that matchup," Granato said Friday following the win. "I watched his body language and if his body language was different, he wouldn’t have gotten that matchup. But I liked what I saw and felt he was ready for the challenge.”
Cozens was not the least bit intimidated by matching up with McDavid or Leon Draisaitl. He said getting the assignment was great.
“It was a big confidence boost, for sure," Cozens said after the win. "To go against one of the top players in the world, I was excited. I wanted to be up for the challenge, but it’s not just me. The whole team played a great game, my linemates and everyone.”
McDavid can score on any given shift, so the question is, why did that line work against him in this game?
“That comes with some chemistry," Granato explained. "I can’t take credit for that by any means. Those guys moved as a unit, as a group of five, and when you do that, you’re pacing off each other and you can generate a lot more speed.”
Cozens not only had the better of the play, he scored two goals for his effort. The thing I loved about both goals is he used his speed as he attacked the net.
When I looked up 12 minutes into the third period, the Sabres had totally shut down the Edmonton attack, as there were no shots on the board for the Oilers. In the final 14 minutes, they ripped 14 shot attempts on Dustin Tokarski, who was stellar in this game making 33 saves.
There was no morning skate on Saturday, but earlier in the week, Granato said Tokarski would start Friday and they’d evaluate after the game. There's a pretty good chance that Aaron Dell will make his Sabres debut on Saturday.
In three games with the Rochester Americans this season, Dell was 3-0-0 with a 3.01 goals-against average and a .905 save percentage.
As long as we're looking at the Amerks' stats, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had really struggled until his outing two games ago where he stopped 40 of 41 pucks in a 5-1 win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. His numbers are 3-4-0 with a 3.85 goals-against average and an .874 save percentage.
In 10 games, Jack Quinn is fourth in AHL scoring with eight goals and six assists for 14 points. His eight goals are second in the league.
J.J. Peterka has two goals and nine assists for 11 points in 10 games.
Getting back to Dell, he, of course, was disappointed he got sent down to Rochester. However, a veteran of professional hockey at age 32, he knows how to handle it.
“It’s still an opportunity, and you have to take it," Dell said following practice earlier this week. "You can’t sit there and pout about it. You have to use that time to improve on your game and wait for your opportunity to come back.”
Dell has spent parts of five seasons in the NHL. If he does get in net against the Leafs, he knows he can’t do too much to try to impress.
“That was one of the things I was working on while I was down in [Rochester]," Dell said. "You have to stay to your game and not try to overthink things, and not try to over save things. That’s a tough situation in a back-to-back to not try to do too much, and you have to sit back and let the game come to you.”
Toronto got an overtime goal from Auston Matthews on Friday night to beat the Calgary Flames, 2-1.
Matthews and the team got off to a horrendous start this season, losing five-of-seven games. Matthews missed the first three games due to injury and only had one goal in his first six games coming back. Since then, he has five goals and four assists for nine points in six games.
In his first eight games, Mitch Marner had no goals and two assists. After that, he had three goals and seven assists for 10 points in four games. He has just one point in his last three.
John Tavares is coming off six games where he had six goals and four assists for 10 points.
The stars catching fire is why Toronto is 7-1-0 in its last eight games, good for second in the Atlantic Division. The Maple Leafs sit three points back of the Florida Panthers and five points ahead of the fifth place Sabres.
Believe it or not, the Sabres are ahead of the Leafs in offense. Buffalo is 15th in the NHL with 2.92 goals-for per-game, while Toronto is 25th at 2.53.
Defensively, the Leafs are seventh with a goals-against average of 2.53, while Buffalo has fallen from second to 18th at 2.92.
Join Brian Koziol and me for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 6 p.m. EST. We’ll be joined live in the press box by Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams, and we'll also hear Granato's pregame comments.
