Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - Talk about a fast-skating, tough 60-minute effort from every single player on the team. The Buffalo Sabres did just that on Saturday in a 3-0 win over the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.
It started right away when Zach Benson took a silly neutral zone tripping penalty nine seconds into the game. Led by Alex Lyon, the penalty killers did a phenomenal job not only on this penalty kill, but all day.
Buffalo went 7-for-7 on the penalty kill, making them 22-of-23 on the season while shorthanded. The unit is 95.7% through five games, which after the game led the NHL.
Meanwhile, it took Buffalo two games to go from dead last in the NHL on the power play to fifth at 27.8%. That's thanks to going 5-for-7 in the last two games.
After killing off two penalties, the Sabres got a power play and it took just six seconds to score. Josh Doan scored his first goal as a member of the Sabres by going to the net and tipping a Tage Thompson shot.
Despite outplaying the defending champs, the Sabres did let Florida hang around until Brad Marchand lost his mind on captain Rasmus Dahlin in the second period, who had cross-checked him from behind.
Doan redirected a Jason Zucker pass into an empty net for his second power play goal of the game to take a 2-0 lead. That gave the Sabres five power play goals in their last seven attempts.
Just 3:08 later, defenseman Owen Power made a great read to turn a 3-on-2 into a 4-on-2, and Alex Tuch gave him a perfect pass for the tap in.
One of the things that was really noticeable in this game was how physical the Sabres were. Mattias Samuelsson had a very strong game, especially on the penalty kill, where he was knocking down bodies around the net. This was easily the most physical game I’ve ever seen Samuelsson play.
With Jacob Bryson going into concussion protocol after just 1:16 on the ice, Samuelsson played 22:01 with two hits and three blocked shots.
Conor Timmins was also extremely solid in his 24:30 of playing time, blocking six shots.
Lyon was, once again, the story playing against his former team.
The 32-year-old just never looked like he was in trouble or out of control, making 32 saves for the shutout.
In five games this season, the veteran goalie has a 2.43 goals-against average and a stellar .929 save percentage. The question is, when does fatigue set in, and when does Colten Ellis get his first NHL game?
Ruff breaks the season into five-game segments, and wants the team to get, at least, six out of a possible 10 points in those five games. That means as the Sabres start their next five-game segment, they have to make up two points.
As far as Florida goes, they’ve done something this season the Sabres haven’t done: Lose four-straight games.
If the Sabres play a majority of the time like they did in Saturday’s game, they will win a lot of hockey games.
We saw players play out of character, we saw the whole team play fast, we saw every player show up to battle and show up around the net. We also saw defensively the team limit turnovers to almost nothing. They kept the middle of the ice clean, and didn’t force Lyon into making many rebound saves.
The next test comes Monday in Montreal against the Canadiens.
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