(WGR 550) – Before I preview Saturday’s game in Arizona against the Coyotes, I want to put a bow on Friday’s win in Vegas over the defending champion Golden Knights.
Since Nov. 27, the Sabres have gone on the road and beaten the New York Rangers, Boston Bruins and Vegas. In all three games, they were going up against the No. 1 team in the NHL at the time. They’re still the top-three teams in the league, as Boston has a points percentage of .750, the Rangers are at .732, and Vegas is at .726.
Buffalo has had a horrible time trying to score goals this season, as they’re ranked 25th in the NHL. In those three games, the Sabres scored 13 goals. Vegas is No. 3 in the league in goals-against, while Boston is fourth and the Rangers are ninth.
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Devon Levi and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen only allowed four total goals in those three games. The Sabres this season are 21st in goals-against.
In all three games, we saw high compete from start-to-finish. We saw a team dedicated to defending well, and turning that into speed and time in the offensive zone. If the Sabres start games like they did in these three games and play just as hard, they are going to be a much-improved team, not a team that has severely regressed from last season.
In their last five games, the Sabres have played well in four of them. They’re 3-1-1, with one of those wins coming this past Monday in a 5-2 victory over the Coyotes. Buffalo had 38 shots in that game, and got a huge performance out of the line of Peyton Krebs, Kyle Okposo and Eric Robinson.
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The Sabres' best players were their best players on Friday night in Vegas.
Dylan Cozens was a force, and had his best game of the season with a goal and two assists. Casey Mittelstadt was more like himself, and it paid off into two goals and an assist. Zach Benson is 18-years-old, but he played like a man in this game, being hard all over the ice and finishing with a goal and an assist. And then there's Alex Tuch, who also had two points against his former team.
With Levi playing on Friday, Luukkonen will likely get the call against Arizona on Saturday. In his first game back on Wednesday from illness, Luukkonen looked a little rusty, and his team played very loose in front of him.
Luukkonen is 6-6-1 this season with a 2.99 goals-against average and a .901 save percentage.
The Coyotes broke a four-game losing streak on Friday night by beating the San Jose Sharks, 1-0.
You’d like to go with the goalie that got you the shutout in Connor Ingram, but this is back-to-back situation. The only game Ingram hasn’t played in the last 11 is the Sabres' game this past Monday.
Ingram has put up terrific numbers this season, going 12-6-0 with a 2.41 goals-against average and a sparkling .923 save percentage.
Clayton Keller leads Arizona with nine goals and 16 assists for 25 points in 29 games.
Join Brian Koziol and myself for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 8 p.m. EST.
