How do you play the Buffalo Sabres right now? It’s got to be one of the biggest conundrums in the NHL. At this level of hockey, the chaos you see in the minor leagues isn’t there. Teams generally know what to expect.
When the Toronto Maple Leafs took the ice Thursday in KeyBank Center, they were just like you and I: They had no idea what was going to happen.
This was as close to a must-win December game as you’ll see.
The Sabres were coming off Tuesday’s 9-4 embarrassment against Columbus, a potentially tipping point night in this era of rebuilding where fans started chanting for the firing of coach Don Granato.
Just 48 hours later, the Sabres turned that around with a 9-3 win over Toronto that made them the first NHL team in 40 years to follow a game where they gave up nine goals by scoring nine of their own. Yet another crazy stat in a season full of them.
The Sabres were angry and playing the Leafs absolutely helped fuel them. Said captain Kyle Okposo, “It never hurts playing the Blue and White.”
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The anti-Granato chant surely lit a fire in the dressing room too. And if that’s what it takes to wake these guys up, good on the paying customers. The coach takes the beating too often in this league but that’s how it works. If the Sabres’ youngish players weren’t aware of that, they darn well should be now.
“I was shocked,” Rasmus Dahlin told me in a quiet moment afterward, when all the television cameras had peeled away from his locker. “We played really really well last season and we just haven’t been finding it (this year). Some games we’ve played well and we’ve been having bad games too.
“I understand if we (stunk) forever but that’s unfair to scream that to Donnie. It was a wakeup call for sure. I absolutely understand the frustration but people have to remember it’s not Donnie out there playing. It’s us. That’s on us.”
The Sabres have won five of the last seven meetings against Toronto and have scored 30 goals in those games.
Okposo agreed that the players took the anti-Granato noise the way it needed to be taken – as an indictment of their performance far more than that of the coach.
“Any time you hear something like that from the home fans, it’s a reflection on us and how we play,” he said. “We’re a very tight-knit group in here and when somebody … we truly care about is having that thrown at them, that’s not a good feeling for us. We wanted to do more than just say that we had his back. We wanted to go out there and prove it and I think we did a pretty good job of that tonight.”
Granato doesn’t want to this be about him but you can tell it meant a lot. His voice was quiet, his eyes somewhat hollow and red as he talked to reporters. He said he didn’t hear what his players were saying in the dressing room but seemed heartened when a few of the comments were relayed to him.
“Nothing better as a coach than to have your guys believe in you, so it means everything,” he said. “That means everything. I can tell you that you have to push these guys … To me personally is a great feeling because we’re not easy on these guys, nor can you be.”
“I can tell you, first and foremost, I am not happy with where we are in the standings, for sure,” Adams told The Buffalo News. “But I have complete belief and faith in this group of players, in this group of coaches, that we are going to to be a really good team, here. It’s just, of course, that we want it now. But it doesn’t always work exactly like that.”
So that’s two wins over the Leafs plus road wins this year in New York, Boston and Las Vegas, as well as home triumphs over Colorado and Tampa Bay. Talk about split personalities. The Sabres are back in Madison Square Garden on Saturday night to meet the Rangers in their final pre-Christmas game.
Not to throw water on the post-Toronto party but let’s not forget the Sabres are 1-9-3 in the next game after their 13 wins this season. They’re going nowhere unless that changes.
“You look at their lineup and they don’t have any lack of skill over there,” Toronto winger Mitch Marner mused in prophetic fashion after the morning skate. “They’ve got a lot of guys that can make you pay for your mistakes. Offensively, it doesn’t matter if it’s on their forward lines or their D lines. There’s a lot of guys that can jump in plays and make stuff happen.”
“Any team doesn’t like getting embarrassed in this league,” Marner added. “… We know that this team’s going to be coming out very fiery, not happy with their last result.”
Granato revealed he did some different drills in practice on Wednesday. Alex Tuch and others said the players have been working to get some of the reins taken off their games.
The Sabres wanted to emphasize defense this year and it’s worked to a point but it’s too often stifled their offense as well. They’ve got a lot of thoroughbreds who have been kept in the barn. That wasn’t the case Thursday. The defense was moving the puck, pressing on the play. The Leafs couldn’t handle all the puck pressure and goaltender Ilya Samsonov was over his head against it.
All those “Go Leafs Go” chants early in the game from Toronto fans who filled the stands to capacity proved meaningless. By the third period, Buffalo fans were counting up the goals in ’70s Aud style, actually hoping the Sabres could get to double figures.
“There’s always a little extra motivation to ‘quiet them up’ pretty quick,” Sabres center Tage Thompson said earlier in the day of Leafs fans. And that’s what happened.
With each goal in the third period, there were lots of Matthews, Marner and Nylander jerseys making the quiet climb up the stairs in the 100 level and down them in the 300s. It was out to the exits and off to the Peace Bridge.
Strange night. Strange team. Strange season. Onward.
