BUFFALO, N.Y. — Lindy Ruff walked into the Buffalo Sabres’ locker room after their 8-7 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday night and couldn’t help but smile. He saw the joy on the players’ faces after pulling off a chaotic and emotional victory in front of an unforgettable home crowd. He saw the cuts and bruises on players’ faces. And the 66-year-old coach in his second stint with the team was full of pride.
“I feel great for them,” Ruff said. “Just to see all the smiles on the faces, to see the reaction to them coming in the room, it puts a smile on a coach’s face. You see a couple guys, their faces a little swollen, a couple little scrapes. It just puts a smile on your face. That’s my kind of hockey.”
Ruff has built a strong case to win the Jack Adams Award as the coach of the year in the NHL. The way the Sabres have gone from last place in the conference in December to first place in the Atlantic Division in March is stunning. Ruff has deflected all credit and given it to the players at every opportunity. But he’s also not shy about the pride he has in being a part of a team that is getting the Sabres back to relevance.
“Just the opportunity to come back and try to get this team in the playoff picture, I was humbled by the opportunity, really,” Ruff said before the game. “But knowing there was a lot of work to do. And we still have a lot of work to do. It’s not a one-man job. It’s myself, it’s my staff, management all the way down. It isn’t about me. It’s about the whole group tying things together.”
That game will go down as one of the best regular-season games in franchise history. It’s one that people in Buffalo will be talking about for a long time. Here are some leftover thoughts in the aftermath of what might have been the game of the year in the NHL.
1. Brandon Hagel was fined $5,000 on Monday for being the aggressor in his altercation with Rasmus Dahlin, and he was at the center of almost every one of the most heated moments in this game. Hagel was the one who got the boarding penalty on Tage Thompson that started the first brawl. He fought Peyton Krebs a few minutes after he got out of the box and was throwing extra punches after Krebs was on the ice. And then he threw multiple punches at the back of Dahlin’s head while he was skating away, and continued to throw punches as Dahlin was going to the ice. If the officials were serious about getting this game under control, they would have ejected Hagel. He might have avoided a suspension, but it’s fair to expect Hagel to have to answer for that play when the Lightning return to Buffalo on April 6.
The Sabres also have to be mindful of protecting Dahlin. The way he cross-checks and takes little shots at players makes him a target for opposing teams. Just in the last few years, we’ve seen Brad Marchand, Auston Matthews, Brayden Point, Evgeni Malkin and now Hagel lose their cool at Dahlin. Those reactions will only become more frequent in the postseason when the intensity reaches another level.
2. After the trade deadline, Jarmo Kekäläinen said that these games down the stretch and in the playoffs are the best time to evaluate the competitive nature of a player. Who rises to the moment and meets the challenge? A lot of Sabres did on Sunday, but one play that stands out to me is the one Noah Östlund made to draw the penalty that led to Josh Doan’s game-winning power-play goal. Östlund isn’t the biggest or strongest guy, so the brutal nature of this game wasn’t necessarily in his wheelhouse; he struggled at times. But with the game tied at seven, he wanted the puck on his stick. He made an incredible play to slip through traffic and get the zone entry before fearlessly taking the puck to the net and getting the Sabres a power play. That is the type of play that big-game players make, and Östlund is becoming one for the Sabres.
3. It’s been only two games, but Sam Carrick already feels like he belongs in Buffalo. On Saturday, he came through with two huge faceoff wins in the final minute of the game to help the Sabres lock down a win against the Predators. Then on Sunday, he got into a fight in the second period and then scored a goal in the third to make the score 6-5. He had gotten the player of the game belt on Saturday, so it was his task to hand it out after the game. As he grabbed it off the wall, he summed up the game beautifully, saying, “Boys, I don’t know what just happened.”
4. The Sabres were outmatched in a lot of their fights on Sunday, but it didn’t matter. The Lightning have some real heavyweights, but the Sabres didn’t hesitate and held their own. But the most impressive effort of the night was Beck Malenstyn getting the best of Corey Perry in their fight in the second period. Malenstyn is a heavy hitter but not necessarily known for fighting. You wouldn’t have known it watching that.
5. I appreciated Ruff’s answer for why he stuck with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in this game despite the Lightning piling up goals.
“He’s in the battle too,” Ruff said. “He’s in the battle. Our goalies have been so good for us. I didn’t want to make this about the goaltender. And it’s probably the same reason that they didn’t take theirs out. Our goaltenders have been so good; they’ve been such a big part of it. I give a lot of credit to Ukko for just battling through it. Just one of those games where there’s a few — I mean, you look at their power-play goal, nothing you could do about. A bunch of defensive breakdowns that, you know, not his fault. So, I just wanted him to be part of the battle.”
Ruff also noted that Luukkonen was out of his crease, ready to defend Dahlin after Hagel’s cheap shot. And Ruff pointed out that Lightning goalie Jonas Johansson stayed in his crease. There will be time to debate who the Sabres’ Game 1 starter for the playoffs should be, but Luukkonen has played well of late. One off night in a game as chaotic as that one was doesn’t erase that.
6. Like Östlund, Ryan McLeod isn’t the type to be involved in a lot of the extracurricular activities that took place. But he had a massive impact on this game. With the Sabres down 7-6, McLeod hit Jason Zucker with a stretch pass that sprung the veteran forward for the game-tying goal. It was an incredible individual effort from Zucker to collect the pass and have the burst of speed to get to the net and finish with the backhand. But McLeod made a high-end play to have the vision and skill to get that puck up ice. The Sabres had a 9-3 advantage in high-danger chances during McLeod’s five-on-five minutes, and he led all forwards in ice time with 21:03.
7. Zucker and Doan are so valuable to this team. They have now combined for 40 goals after both ended up with a pair of goals in this game. Three of those came on the power play. When the Sabres’ power play is working, it’s because they are playing with urgency, getting shots on net and creating the necessary traffic. They didn’t do that on an early five-on-three, but they got better as the game went on and scored four power-play goals. That’s how you make a team like the Lightning pay for repeatedly crossing the line.
8. So often the story with these Sabres has been about Thompson and his ability to carry them. It was odd to look at the score sheet of a game that featured 15 goals and not see at least one from Thompson. But his impact was clear with his four assists. Three of those were primary assists. It was encouraging to see other players step up with the goals. And it was equally encouraging to see Thompson find other ways to affect the game.
9. Kekäläinen deserves credit for recognizing the Sabres’ need for reinforcements when it comes to games like this one. The Carrick addition was a shrewd move and looks like a perfect fit. But Logan Stanley, who was watching this game from the press box while waiting for his work visa, is going to change the dynamic the next time these teams step on the ice in April. He’s a menacing presence on the blue line, capable of changing a game with his physicality and more than willing to stick up for teammates after the whistle. It felt like the Sabres stood a little taller on Sunday because they knew their general manager had their back, and more help is on the way.
10. This was one of those games that people in attendance will remember for the rest of their lives. It’s hard to encapsulate what the arena felt like, but there were so many little moments that stood out. One was when the in-game audio operator repeatedly hit the “Give me a ‘Hell yeah,’” sound effect during a scrum. That one is typically reserved for the end of a goal announcement. The in-arena camera crew also had fun with the crowd of Lightning and Sabres players in the penalty box in the first period. The camera panned back and forth between the two penalty boxes with the crowd erupting with cheers when the Sabres were on the big screen and loudly booing when the Lightning were shown.
But the organic moments were the best. Multiple times during stoppages, including one key moment in the third period, the crowd just spontaneously got to its feet and tried to will the Sabres to the finish line. A few players said they wouldn’t have gotten the win without the energy from the crowd. This looked and sounded like a fan base starving for playoff hockey.