Buffalo sweeps three-game road trip coming out of the Olympic break
Concerns over whether the Buffalo Sabres would be able to recapture their winning momentum after the Olympic break have been put to the side, as the club swept all three games coming after the lengthy hiatus. The Sabres snuck by New Jersey and the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers with one goal wins, and punctuated the three-game sweep with a dominating 6-2 victory over the Atlantic Division-leading Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.
"We got off to a great start. Skated really well, moved the puck well, got support of the puck well. Coming out of the zone led a lot of good opportunities,"Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said after the game. "We got around net-front where (we had a) tip goal and we a lot of great opportunities."
Buffalo surged out to a 5-0 lead in the second of back-to-back games in the Sunshine State, with Josh Norris leading the way with a pair of tallies, and got a strong 36-save performance from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to move into sole possession of second place in the division, one point ahead of the Montreal Canadiens and just four points in back of the Lightning.
"When you look at opportunities, there's a lot of nights you get a lot of good opportunities, (that) you don't take advantage," Ruff said. "In Florida, we had a lot of good ones, the two-on-ones we gave, we didn't generate a lot (of chances), I thought today, we made some good plays, and then we put them in the back of the net, which, early on, really put (Tampa) in a bad place and they tried to press a little bit, and then we caught him, we got on the other side of them and created some even better opportunities."
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Questions of whether the Sabres will make the playoffs are beginning to fade, as the club is seven points ahead of the Washington Capitals (who are in ninth place in the Eastern Conference standings). The unknown with five days remaining before the NHL trade deadline is whether GM Jarmo Kekalainen will take the opportunity to add to the roster before 3 pm Friday.
The Sabres do not have their second-round pick in 2026, due to the swap with Ottawa for Norris, but have extra picks in the middle rounds, all their picks in 2027, and a bevy of prospects in the organization. Youngsters like Isak Rosen and Devon Levi are blocked within the organization’s depth chart. Both will lose their waiver exemption next season, so they could be pieces that Kekalainen uses to bring back a significant return. Using some of their draft capital could bring back a depth rental in a key area, and there are indicators that the Sabres are looking to add a veteran right-handed blueliner, with Michael Kesselring having health issues all season and veteran Conor Timmins currently on injured reserve recovering from a broken leg.
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