Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres were pitiful with the puck early on Sunday against the Boston Bruins falling behind 2-0 after the first period. They did have scoring chances on Joonas Korpisalo but their best chances seemed to be stopped or rolled off their sticks.
Lindy Ruff got things corrected and for the last 40 minutes Buffalo outscored Boston 6-1 and won 6-3.
Tage Thompson scored his eighth career hat trick to lead the way. Thompson now has 43 goals and nine goals in his last seven games. Over 82 games Thompson is on a 50 goal pace. Thompson is now third in the NHL, one ahead of Alex Ovechkin and one behind Will Nylander of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Earlier on Sunday Ovechkin became the NHL’s All-Time leading goal scorer surpassing Wayne Gretzky. Ovechkin has 895 goals and has played the same number of games as Gretzky.
Lindy Ruff is amazed by the accomplishment,
“It’s an incredible feat, that number of goals and the run he’s been on this year, and what an incredible run to pass Wayne, so congrats to him.”
Sunday was a great day for the league and the NHL along with the New York Islanders did a great ceremony immediately after the goal was scored in the second period. Alex Tuch feels this is a big day for the league,
“It’s incredible, obviously he’s a great player, generational talent and congrats to him, it was a phenomenal accomplishment taking down ‘The Great One,’ anytime you can do that it’s really special and I loved the cele too, it was an awesome cele and I think it just shows you how talented our league is and how we keep striving to become better.
No offense to him, but I hope someone beats him now and it shows you how far we’ve come and how skilled the league is now.”
The closest active player is Sidney Crosby who at 37-years-old has 622 goals.
Jaromir Jagr played well into his 40’s but there wasn’t this type of production. Ruff said it’s amazing that Ovechkin is still at it,
“I think we all understand how difficult it is and anybody who played or coaches the game, you’ve got to understand what an incredible accomplishment and to do it at that age (39) when most of us wake up with aches and pains a lot sooner than that so to play all those years, so my hat’s off to him because it’s something 10 years ago that a lot of people wouldn’t have thought possible.”
Gretzky played in an era where the top players were scoring over 200 points. Now, players are lucky to get to 100. Ruff said,
“We’ve talked about that as coaches that the game back when Wayne was in his heyday was a lot more offensive and there was a lot more chances and a lot more scoring and then we had those years when the game really tightened up and he was still scoring, and I think it’s just his shot, it’s special, so two different eras, but both guys are two incredible athletes.”
Tage Thompson is 27-years-old and has 175 NHL goals. He said he can’t even comprehend what Ovechkin has done,
“No, no, that’s not even human I think especially in today’s game, it’s just beyond incredible.”
As far as doing it at 39, Thompson said,
“I would say I’m trying to keep up with him in goals (this year) he’s obviously the greatest goal scorer of all-time for a reason and I think to be that consistent, the smarts you have to have to find those spots to get yourself into areas where you can get shots off, he’s been playing the game for how long and you’d think by now people would try to sit on him or take him away, but his ability to find open ice and get those shots off is something I really admire and try to iso-cam where he is on the ice and try to apply it to my game, so he’s been one of my favorites to watch and it’s pretty remarkable to see the consistency he’s had throughout his whole career.”
The win was Buffalo’s sixth straight at home and fourth straight overall. The Sabres have won seven out of eight games and 9-of-12.
In their last 14 home games the team is 12-2-0 and in their last 19 in this building they’re 15-4-0 and overall in Western New York they’re 21-13-3.
The Sabres host the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday.