If you're coming to KeyBank Center for that Black Friday Buffalo Sabres matinee against the Vancouver Canucks, you want to see the same game this team played Wednesday against the Minnesota Wild.
Of course, with a few goals thrown in.
The Sabres are finding a standard of play that can get them places. That ugly 5-2 loss Nov. 16 in Philadelphia was far from it. Since then, Buffalo has played four games − and allowed a total of five goals.
Hard to gripe about Wednesday's defeat. The Sabres had 39 shots on goal and 87 attempts. They didn't score because Filip Gustavsson was outstanding in the Wild net, and just a few too many of Buffalo's good chances were right in his breadbasket and not artfully aimed at a corner of the cage.
But sometimes that happens. The odds are that you get a lot of scoring chances in a game like the Sabres did, you're going to score.
Said Alex Tuch: "Honestly, we play it that type of way, I think we're going to win nine out of 10 games."
Hard to argue. The Sabres are 7-3 in their last 10 games. They are so much harder to play against than in the past, and that's a huge first step for them. They've cut way back on the silly turnovers. They're getting great goaltending from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who has given up more than two goals just one time in his last eight games.
Tuch, Tage Thompson and resurgent Jack Quinn all had six shots on goal apiece Wednesday, while Jiri Kulich had five. You get 23 between those four guys and you're looking at four or five goals most games, not your first shutout of the season.
Thompson talked afterward about how he senses a "maturity" in the team's game. They're not getting frustrated, not cheating for offense.
Quinn, still stuck at one measly goal for the season, has now played two beastly games in his last three by matching his performance in Anaheim with this one.
"A lot closer to what I expect every night of myself," he said. "Keep chipping away to get that every night, and I think I'll be in a good spot once I do that."
All eight teams in the Atlantic Division were in action Wednesday, and the Sabres could have landed anywhere from second to fifth in the standings based on all the results. They ended up fifth, as Florida and Boston both won to knock the Sabres down two spots.
It will be more of the same Friday, with five of the eight Atlantic teams hitting the ice. The Sabres will start the day one point out of the last Eastern Conference wild card, and two points out of third place in the division.
Vancouver is coming off a 5-4 loss Wednesday in Pittsburgh that snapped eight-game road winning streak, and the Canucks are 8-2 on the road. Another huge challenge.
Minnesota, meanwhile, is an impressive team. The Wild are now 14-4-4 overall, 10-1-3 on the road and 10-0-0 when leading after two periods. Kirill Kaprizov, the Hart Trohy winner of the first quarter of the schedule, got the only goal on a 4-on-1 break.
The Sabres couldn't get inside at all early in the third period. But in the final 10 minutes, things really opened up. Coach Lindy Ruff explained that the Sabres pushed the envelope, getting their third forward in on the forecheck to press for offense. It was high-risk hockey that allowed some scoring chances back the other way, but Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was as up to the task as Gustavsson was in a third period that saw both teams have 14 shots on goal.
"We had people around the paint," Ruff said. "Didn't have a lot of puck luck."
Remember all the talk last season about the Sabres not winning three games in a row until February? Well, they've pulled that trick three times already this year by Thanksgiving − but are 0-3 trying to get a streak to four. That hasn't happened since January, 2023.
It was exactly six years ago Wednesday − Nov. 27, 2018 − that the Sabres and their fans celebrated Jeff Skinner's overtime goal that produced a 3-2 overtime win over San Jose and tied the franchise record for consecutive wins at 10.
The Sabres were an eye-popping 17-6-2 and were first in the NHL's overall standinngs. It is notable that after that night the Sabres were an amazing 17 points ahead of the St. Louis Blues − who would go on to win the Stanley Cup 6 1/2 months later.
It all went away, of course. All the overtime wins weren't sustainable. Neither was the goaltending. Or the GM-ing, as Jason Botterill sat on his hands and did nothing at the trade deadline while the season fell apart. In the end, the Sabres were nearly the first team in history to lose 10 straight in a year they also won 10 in a row, and Phil Housley got fired the day after the season finale.
This poor fanbase has a lot of PTSD from the last 13 seasons, and the first quarter of 2018 is very high on the list.
But under Ruff, the club looks ready to take on some bigger challenges this season. The Sabres already own nice wins over Florida, Dallas, the New York Rangers, Calgary and Los Angeles. They also have some rugged losses (hello, Montreal).
They've followed their last three losses with wins, and will be trying to repeat that pattern again Friday. Vancouver is just a shade behind Minnesota, but it's still a large challenge with the Canucks playing so well on the road.
"We're right there as a team," Quinn said. "It's that much more motivation to keep pushing, keep taking steps. (Minnesota is a) real good team in this league and, as we saw, we were right there."
