Washington, D.C. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - In the past week, the Buffalo Sabres have played the top-two teams in the NHL on the road and beat them both.
Last Saturday, they knocked off the Western Conference’s top team, the Winnipeg Jets, 5-3. On Sunday, they took out the best team in the league, the Washington Capitals, 8-5.
Since March 10, Buffalo has also beaten the Edmonton Oilers, Vegas Golden Knights, Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins. They also had bad losses to the Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers.
Washington came into the game with a 24-7-6 record at home, while the Sabres were 11-23-3 away from Western New York.
Ever since Tage Thompson’s teammates stood around and watched him get laid out with no response against the New Jersey Devils in early February, things have been a lot different. They had to be told by head coach Lindy Ruff what it means to be a good teammate, and that’s what we’ve seen since.
Ruff told them it’s not always showing up in scrums and fights. It’s having a teammate’s back when he makes a mistake on the ice. It’s going into battles together, and it’s showing desperation.
There were many examples of this against the Capitals on Sunday.
Before being traded to the Sabres this past offseason, winger Beck Malenstyn was a teammate with Alex Ovechkin in Washington. He knows how hard Ovechkin shoots, yet he went down to block a key shot.
It’s watching Connor Clifton block six shots. It’s watching Peyton Krebs skate so hard, he out-fights the Capitals, dives and scores an empty-net goal to put the game away.
Honestly, we weren’t seeing too much desperation for most of the season until now.
Another reason they beat Washington is because anytime the Capitals got close, Buffalo responded. After the Capitals scored first, Thompson and Ryan McLeod responded for the lead.
Despite Washington tying the game again, Alex Tuch and Sam Lafferty responded to make it 4-2, Buffalo.
Aliaksei Protas scored a shorthanded goal to make it 4-3 early in the third period, but, Thompson and Jack Quinn got it right back, and gave the Sabres a 6-3 lead.
Washington came roaring back again with two goals to cut the deficit to 6-5, but 1:31 later, Tuch tips in his second of the game to kill any momentum favoring the Capitals.
This crowd was going crazy when Ovechkin scored his third-period goal to pull to within four of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time NHL record. The crowd even got more into the game when Pierre-Luc Dubois tipped in Ovechkin’s shot to make it 6-5.
I guarantee you two months ago, the Sabres would’ve lost this game because panic would’ve set in and they would’ve sat back. Now, they play things differently. It’s almost like they’ve finally figured out that maybe Ruff knows what he’s talking about.
James Reimer was in goal for the fourth time in five games, and he’s won all four games.
Quinn is full of confidence lately with back-to-back three-point games. In his last four games played, he has four goals and four assists for eight points.
Sunday’s goal for Quinn came on a breakaway, where he put a missile right under the crossbar and above the catching glove of Capitals goalie Logan Thompson.
McLeod used his speed to score another nice goal. In his last 13 games, McLeod has four goals and 12 assists for 16 points.
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Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin returned after missing one game due to an illness. He played in his 500th NHL game.
Thompson is on an 82-game pace of 47 goals for the Sabres, while Tuch’s 82-game pace is 35 goals.
The Sabres are now tied with the Bruins for 26th in the NHL with a points percentage of .466.
The Flyers are 28th and last in the Eastern Conference with a points percentage of .460.
Buffalo will fly to Ottawa on Monday to face the Senators on Tuesday.