(WGR 550) - The Buffalo Sabres built on, what was, a good game Friday against the Washington Capitals, and played even better on Monday by blitzing the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-1.
This was one of the better games you’ll see this team play. Ralph Krueger felt their neutral zone play and gaps were the best he’s seen since he’s been the Sabres' head coach.
You saw heart, you saw desire, you saw discipline and you saw a team that wanted to win very badly.
In the first period, I wondered if it was going to be a repeat of the 2-1 loss to the Capitals. The Sabres were skating well, getting on the Flyers at every turn, and were causing turnovers that were leading to great chances on goalie Carter Hart.
Jack Eichel’s line came out and set the tone early, keeping offensive pressure on Philadelphia for the first 1:18 of the game.
Brandon Montour took the Sabres' only penalty in two games at 2:34 of the period, but Buffalo did a great job shutting down a power play that came into the game with a 33.3% conversion rate.
Before the game, it was announced that due to personal reasons, Linus Ullmark was not going to be available for the game. That gave Carter Hutton an emergency start for Buffalo, and Jonas Johansson was called up from the taxi squad.
Right after the penalty kill, Eric Staal gave the puck away and Flyers' leading scorer Travis Konecky came in alone down the slot. Hutton made a huge save to keep it tied at 0-0.
From that point forward, it was all Buffalo.
Eichel came in on a 2-on-0 with Jeff Skinner and gave him a nice pass for, what should’ve been, a tap-in goal, but Skinner bobbled the pass and didn’t get a shot off.
Right after that, Tobias Rieder got open down the slot, but missed the net.
Things were looking like it could go south because they were missing glorious chances, but that ended when after 135:52 of hockey this season, they took their first lead.
Skinner made a great play at the blue line in front of defenseman Philippe Myers, forcing a turnover to Curtis Lazar. The center walked in and roofed a gorgeous backhand shot right under the crossbar.
I still wondered if all that great first period work was going to go for naught, but Buffalo finally kicked the scoring into gear scoring at 3:35, 7:28 and 8:09 of the second period.
You talk about moving your feet and setting a pace. Sam Reinhart scored a power play goal when Taylor Hall came out from beside the net, skated across the crease and set up the winger for his first of the season.
Reinhart got his second of the year when Eichel put a perfect dump in around the left wall. The speedy Hall got there first, and Reinhart went to the net. Next thing you know, the puck came to him in the deep slot and it was 3-0.
Ralph Krueger was way too slow to take Tage Thompson off of Eichel’s right wing and put Reinhart there.
In the first four period of the season, Reinhart was awful. As soon as he went to Eichel’s line, the whole season seems like it turned around.
The last goal of the period was just the determination of the Lazar line. Montour put a shot through that Hart stopped, Riley Sheahan scooped up the rebound and went cross ice to a wide-open Lazar, who had an open net for his second of the game.
Philadelphia pulled Hart after that goal. The Flyers netminder played 28:09, and stopped 18-of-22 shots faced. In relief, Brian Elliott played 31:51, making 12 saves on 14 shots faced.
Henri Jokiharju and Victor Olofsson added third period goals, with Olofsson’s coming on the power play. The Sabres were 2-for-4 with the extra man on Monday, after coming into the game 1-for-8.
Hutton lost his shutout with 2:05 left in the game when Jake McCabe stepped up and missed a check along the wall and Reinhart gave up on his backcheck.
I just want to repeat how utterly impressed I was with the overall game. If that team that took the ice Monday night is your team for the season, the Sabres are going to be in very good shape.
Same two teams meet again on Tuesday in Philadelphia for a 7 p.m. EST faceoff.
