Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – When Dustin Tokarski started against the Washington Capitals on Thursday, he hadn’t won a National Hockey League game in five years. Fast forward to Sunday, and Tokarski has now won two out of three games, beating the Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins.
Sunday was a big ask. Buffalo was 0-5-0 this season against the Penguins, and their starting goaltender Casey DeSmith had won his last three games against Buffalo, all by shutout. The Sabres hadn’t scored on DeSmith since 2018.
Ever since Don Granato took over as interim head coach, his team has beaten goalies that had total mastery over them. Not only did they beat them, they chased Philadelphia Flyers goalie Brian Elliott and Capitals netminder Vitek Vanecek.
DeSmith's shutout streak ended at 180:18 when Arttu Ruotsalainen scored just 26 seconds into the game.
The play was a clear picture of how Buffalo was going to play, and how they were going to back off the Pittsburgh defense. Rasmus Dahlin quickly got a breakout pass up the left wing to Dylan Cozens. When Cozens hit the red line, he shifted into overdrive, creating a 2-on-1 rush. His pass was perfect to Ruotsalainen.
The Sabres never stopped moving their feet and going with a north-to-south pace. Instead of standing up at their offensive blue line, Pittsburgh started to retreat when they saw the Sabres skating right at them.
Buffalo’s second goal was, again, a winger being on his toes. Jeff Skinner was stride-for-stride with former Sabres forward Evan Rodrigues. Victor Olofsson cut in and a forced a turnover, which he then recognized right away that Sam Reinhart was streaking through the right circle and Buffalo had 2-0 lead.
I loved what Granato did after that - he held Cody Eakin accountable. Just 41 seconds after the goal, Eakin took a hooking penalty. After he came out of the box, he took two more shifts and was then benched for the final 12:22 of the second period.
Granato gave him one more chance in the third period, and Eakin made a lazy breakout, losing the puck when Colton Sceviour lifted his stick from behind. For the final 17:18, Eakin’s afternoon was over.
Drake Caggiula exited quarantine on Sunday, and Granato said he would probably play on Tuesday. Eakin would be a top candidate to come out of the lineup.
Speed was, again, the name of the game on a third period power play when Reinhart entered the zone and into the right circle with speed. That forced Pittsburgh to back up, and Reinhart ripped home his 17th goal of the season.
Buffalo got sloppy off a faceoff at 10:18, but they didn’t crumble when Jason Zucker cut the Sabres' lead to 3-1.
They easily killed off a penalty to Dahlin and got the game to the garage, thanks to Rasmus Asplund’s empty-net goal.
With a points percentage of .344, this is no longer the worst team in Sabres history. Two other teams have been worse.
This year in the NHL, the Ottawa Senators' points percentage is at .378, while the Anaheim Ducks are at .380.
When it comes to points for the league cellar, Buffalo has 31, while the New Jersey Devils and Ottawa have 34 points.
The Sabres are 6-3-2 in their last 11 games.
Mattias Samuelsson played in his first NHL game for Buffalo. The 21-year-old played with Rasmus Ristolainen and had 14:12 of action with one shot and two hits. Samuelsson coming up from Rochester made Matt Irwin a healthy scratch.
Buffalo has three-straight home games coming up with the Boston Bruins starting Tuesday. This should be a real good test for this young team that’s 0-3-0 against Boston.
