BUFFALO — They put an actual wagon with the Buffalo Sabres logo outside the KeyBank Center entrance, along with the words ‘WE’RE BACK’ in huge letters — creating an easy selfie spot for playoff-starved fans on Monday.
Inside, the team brought back the popular beer sabres to keep the Dyngus Day celebration going — some bars in the border city open at 8 a.m. for the Polish-American Easter Monday holiday. Perfect timing, because as the Sabres said, “the drought is over” for what is once again a hockey-mad city (16 straight sellouts and counting).
In the first home game since the team officially ended an NHL-high, 14-season run without a playoff berth, the Sabres also delivered on the ice with a 4-2 win in a much-anticipated rematch against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Playing Tampa for the first time since their wild, fight-filled 8-7 win here back on March 8 in what many called the game of the year, the Sabres found another way to beat the Lightning and pulled even with the Bolts for first place in the Atlantic Division.
After a two-game skid on the road caused a little bit of worry for the fanbase, the Sabres are back on the winning track and now will cheer for the Ottawa Senators to beat the Lightning on Tuesday as Tampa plays its game in hand. The Montreal Canadiens are also very much in this division race, just two points back of the co-leaders. Tampa and Montreal have five games left, while Buffalo has four.
Regardless of where the Sabres finish, their third win in four tries this season against the playoff-tested Lightning showed they are capable of making noise when the games mean even more.
Coach Lindy Ruff predicted a “tremendous” atmosphere — and he was bang on. One leather-lunged fan in the upper deck bellowed “Hagel sucks” during the anthem, causing some laughs in the aftermath of Brandon Hagel’s attack on captain Rasmus Dahlin last time out. The fan was unaware or simply didn’t care that Hagel was out with an injury Monday — but it was a sign of the enthusiasm to come.
“I think it will be a little bit about trying to keep your emotions in check,” Ruff said before the game. “You’ve got to balance that out, too. But you’d rather have your team too jacked up than not jacked up.”
His Sabres met the moment.
Fittingly, it was Alex Tuch, a lifelong Sabres fan from just down the highway in Syracuse, N.Y., making the biggest impact all night.
Tuch, a pending UFA getting ready for a big payday, sent the crowd into hysterics with the game’s opening goal less than six minutes in. On a penalty kill in the second period, he had three straight chances, only to be denied by Andrei Vasilevskiy. Another shot less than a minute later was kicked away by the Lightning goalie.
It would have been nearly impossible for Monday to be as chaotic as the last game between these two teams — but fans still got a healthy portion of entertainment.
There were no fighting majors, but there was plenty of bad blood. All 10 players on the ice were pushing, shoving or doing even more in a skirmish that had the entire crowd standing and screaming midway through the first period.
No one would complain if these teams meet again come playoff time.
“That’s what happens (intense games) when good teams meet each other and Buffalo has a heck of a team and I’d like to think we’re not too shabby ourselves,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper, whose team is heading to the playoffs for the ninth year in a row, said before the game. “I think it brings the best out of both the teams. It’s good for the game.
“… I think it’s good for the league that Buffalo is going to play in the post-season. It’s a hockey town and now their fans get to watch their own team play as opposed to watching other teams play. And they deserve it. Buffalo’s had a hell of a year.”
Jason Zucker scored the winner midway through the second period on a wonderful tip of a Bowen Byram blast. Josh Norris also scored for Buffalo, while Jack Quinn added an empty-etter. Nikita Kucherov, with his 400th career goal, and Jake Guentzel replied for the Lightning. The Sabres outshot the Lightning 29-25, never trailed in the game and were deserving winners.
Of course, Sabres fans haven’t forgotten the hard times. Just hours earlier, local sports-radio station WGR was asking fans to name their worst moments of the drought. Former GM Kevyn Adams’ palm-trees-and-taxes speech just over a year ago was a common answer, along with the Connor McDavid draft-lottery loss in a year where many Buffalo fans regularly made short trips to Erie, Pa., to watch him play in the OHL.
Jack Eichel was a pretty good consolation prize, but we all know how that ended up.
All the pain, of course, just makes this rebound that much sweeter for Sabres supporters. It’s only going to get more exciting in the days and weeks ahead.
“I talked to our team how it’s been a heck of a push against a lot of really good teams to get to where we’re at,” Ruff said. “We need one last push here to get through the end of the regular season.”
Mixed emotions
Cooper is that rare NHL bench boss with long-term job security, starting his gig in 2013 — three years before No. 2 on the longest-serving coach list, Jared Bednar of the Colorado Avalanche.
With the Vegas Golden Knights (John Tortorella replacing Bruce Cassidy) and New York Islanders (Peter DeBoer for Patrick Roy) both making coaching changes in the final stretch of the season, Cooper was asked how he felt about the revolving-door nature of his profession for most others in the league.
“It’s hard for me to comment on this because as happy as you are for a coach to get a job, I have good friends that are out of a job,” he said. “I’m not sure how far I want to go into it. I’m not in the ownership or management of these clubs. I think there is a high mandate to make the playoffs. Fans demand it and sometimes you’ve got to answer to some people. If those teams think that’s what’s going to help them, you’ve got to do that.
“Every organization is trying to make themselves better. But like I said, I more look at it that two guys are out of a job now and two good friends. But I’m also happy for Torts and Pete because they’re two class individuals, too (DeBoer was an assistant to Cooper on the Canadian Olympic team). That’s what professional sports is, it’s dog eat dog.”
How Kucherov makes opponents ‘look bad‘
Kucherov entered the night with 125 points, one point back of McDavid in the race for the Art Ross Trophy. And he had three goals and four assists in the first three games against Buffalo.
“Don’t give him time, don’t give him that extra ice,” Ruff said. “If you give him time, he’s going to make a play. He can make you look bad. His vision and his playmaking ability, I put it right up there as the best in the league.”
The Sabres did give him time on a Lightning power play in the first period.
Unsurprisingly, Kucherov one-timed Guentzel’s pass past Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to tie the game.
Back in town
After 10 years without a playoff game in Buffalo, Latvian centre Zemgus Girgensons will get his first taste of the post-season as a member of the Lightning.
The 2012 Sabres first-round pick signed a three-year deal with Tampa last summer. Girgensons was asked why he feels the Sabres have finally surged this year.
“Just the process of it, you can see guys have matured a lot,” he said. “Just the way they play. They’ve been playing good hockey and it’s fun to watch.”
