Sabres prevail over Atlantic Division rival in back-and-forth battle
The Buffalo Sabres rebounded from arguably their poorest effort of the season with a 6-4 victory over their Atlantic Division rival, the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday night. The game was a back-and-forth battle that saw the Leafs erase Buffalo leads on three occasions before Alex Tuch’s game-winner with 7:12 left in the third period.
Tuch added an empty-netter, with J-J Peterka, Tage Thompson, Jeff Skinner, and Jordan Greenway also scoring for Buffalo. Devon Levi made 25 saves for his second victory of the season in his first start since October 19, and with the win, the Sabres even their record at 6-6-0.
Here are three takeaways from Buffalo’s 6-4 victory over Toronto:
The Benefits Of Balanced Scoring
It was a picture of two contrasting team constructions in the first Battle of the QEW on Saturday, as 11 different Sabres had a point and five different Sabres scored prior to Tuch’s empty-netter, whereas Toronto got all four of their goals from the pairing of Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.
Going Seven Without Samuelsson
The injury to Mattias Samuelsson on Friday resulted in the recall of defenseman Ryan Johnson from Rochester, prompting Sabres head coach Don Granato to go with seven blueliners for the first time this season. Samuelsson normally partners with Rasmus Dahlin and plays in excess of 20 minutes, but with seven D, the Sabres were able to spot Johnson’s shifts in his first NHL game, use Jacob Bryson sparingly and lean heavily on Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power, who both played over 24 minutes.
Looking Past Philadelphia?
The question was not asked after a poor showing in the 5-1 loss to Philadelphia on Friday, but the Sabres bounce-back performance against Toronto has to call into question whether Buffalo was looking past the Flyers in their rematch towards their first meeting with the Leafs. Sabres team captain Kyle Okposo said after winning in Philadelphia in which they were outshot 40-15, there was some complacency present in the rematch on Friday. There was nothing of the sort against Toronto.
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