It may have been boring for two periods, but the Sabres executed a crucial 4-3 win last Wednesday night using something they’ve rarely used before—patience. The Sabres’ game play reflected the New Jersey Devils’ defensive style. This allowed them to get the win and hold their place in the standings.
“I though it was a real good win for our team,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “We had to tone down our style of play, we had to be a lot more patient. I thought we cleaned up a lot of the careless errors, and the careless turnovers that had been hurting us.”
The Sabres, with their run-and-gun style, have struggled all year against the Devils and defense-first teams like the Minnesota Wild. These teams, especially the Devils, play a brand of hockey focused on getting all five guys back and clogging the middle of the ice on defense. It is important to get a lead because it forces them to open up their defense and take some chances to catch up. But it also makes for excruciatingly boring hockey.
Ruff said, “If you get down against them it makes for a very tough game. They are a very good team when it comes to playing defense.”
It is generally accepted that hockey tightens up and becomes more defensive in the playoffs. So playing the Devils is good preparation for the kind of hockey the Sabres can expect while making a run at Lord Stanley’s Cup.
A win by the Devils would have closed the distance in the Eastern Conference race to three points, with five games to play for the Devils. With this win, the Sabres now enjoy a comfortable seven-point conference lead over three teams tied with 98 points, including the Devils, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Ottawa Senators. The Sabres actually have six games left to play, so they have a game-in-hand on all the tied teams. So, barring an almost total collapse, the Sabres are set to win the Eastern Conference and take home-ice advantage in the first three rounds of the playoffs.
After Wednesday night’s results, the Sabres have 105 points, which ties them with Nashville in the race for the President’s Trophy, awarded to the team with the best overall record in the NHL. The President’s Trophy, which guarantees the winner home-ice advantage throughout the entire playoffs, is kind of a dubious honor, considering in the twenty-year history of the President’s Trophy, only six winners have gone on to win the Stanley Cup.
The game also marked the return of Sabres wingers Daniel Paille and Ales Kotalik.
Paille, who missed 15 games with a broken finger, got the all-too-important go ahead goal, swiping home a juicy rebound by Devils goalie Martin Broduer. “It’s tough for a goalie to make a save like that when he’s sliding across,” Paille said of his goal. “So I kept it down low and it went in.”
Kotalik, who missed 16 games with a sprained knee, scored the game-winning goal. Skating down the ice, he took a beautiful backhand pass from Dainius Zubrus just inside the blue line, and sniped a one-timer past Brodeur.
“You know he’s a great player,” Kotalik said of Zubrus, “We know what he did in Washington. I always liked him, he’s a big guy who can be strong on the puck down low, and that’s what fits my game too.”
The Sabres are finally getting healthy, and it’s at just the right time as the playoffs draw near. The Sabres still expect winger Maxim Afinogenov (broken wrist), and centerman Tim Connelly (post-concussion syndrome and knee stress fracture), back before the end of the regular season. The Sabres took an important step on Wednesday that—while not lending itself to bang-on-the-bar excitement—showed that the Sabres can be just as good as anybody on defense.
