Before the Sabres left for a three-game road trip in California, they had a lot going on. Jordan Greenway had been put on injured reserve, Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch were dealing with lingering injuries and goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was returning from an injury of his own. They’d sent Devon Levi down to Rochester and called up Jiri Kulich and Isak Rosen.
It was a chaotic start to the week for a team that was on the outside looking in at the Eastern Conference playoff picture, a fact coach Lindy Ruff reminded them of by putting the standings on display in the locker room.
A lot can change in five days. The Sabres went west and collected six points by beating the Kings, Ducks and Sharks. They did it without Tage Thompson. They’re not only above .500 for the first time all season, but they are 7-2 in their last nine games and their 11-9-1 record has them in playoff position with American Thanksgiving just a few days away.
How did this happen? Here’s a look at what we learned from Buffalo’s three games in California.
The games
1-0 win over the Kings
What happened: Luukkonen played lights out, and Jason Zucker came up with a clutch goal on the power play. The Sabres started the trip with a mature win against the best team in California.
3-2 overtime win over the Ducks
What happened: The Sabres were still without Tage Thompson and had a sluggish start to the game offensively. Luukkonen was great again and Zucker had another clutch goal. The Sabres came back from down 2-0, got the game to overtime and Kulich scored the game-winner.
4-2 win over the Sharks
What happened: On the second half of a back-to-back, the Sabres came out sluggish, and James Reimer needed a strong first period to keep Buffalo in the game. The Sabres got their legs late in the period to get to intermission 1-1. They fell behind 2-1 but got third-period goals from Dylan Cozens and Tuch to complete the comeback to leave California with all six points.
The takeaways
1. That the Sabres had this type of road trip without Thompson in the lineup for all three games is an important development. This team was overly reliant on Thompson’s production early in the season. If they can show more balance and depth throughout their lineup, they might be able to sustain this playoff push. Thompson’s return could come as soon as Wednesday against the Wild, but the rest of the group should have more confidence knowing what it did without him. Three imperfect games, two of which were against inferior teams, but the Sabres found ways to get wins and much-needed points.
2. Zucker is looking like everything the Sabres hoped for when they signed him to a one-year, $5 million contract. His leadership in the locker room has been apparent, and he’s proving timely scoring, too. He plays a no-nonsense game and gets to the front of the net, making him an easy player to put on any line. He scored goals in the first two games of this trip and now has 14 points in 21 games with Buffalo. His passion has been noticeable.
3. Luukkonen is healthy and finding his groove. He’s 14th in the NHL in save percentage and 14th in goals saved above expected. In the month of November, Luukkonen has a .933 save percentage and 1.77 goals against average. That’s counting a rough outing against Montreal when Luukkonen was playing through an injury and allowed four goals in two periods. He’s finding the level he played at in the second half of last season, and that’s elevating the Sabres as a team. Buffalo also got a terrific performance from veteran James Reimer against the Sharks. He stopped 31 of 33 shots in his first start for the Sabres this season. With the rest of the team playing two games in less than 24 hours with travel in between, Reimer needed to come up big and did.
4. The Sabres’ penalty kill was a perfect 12-for-12 on this trip and did that without Jordan Greenway, who has been a mainstay on that unit all season long. The improvement on special teams has been a key to Buffalo rebounding from a slow start. The Sabres’ penalty kill finished the trip in style. Not only did they go five-for-five on the penalty kill against the Sharks, but Tuch scored a short-handed game-winner in the third period.
Alex Tuch scored his THIRD shorthanded goal of the season to give us the lead! 👏#LetsGoBuffalo | #sabrehood pic.twitter.com/VMyPCmiqVr
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) November 24, 2024
5. Speaking of Tuch, he was questionable to start the road trip but played through whatever injury was nagging him. He was outstanding on this trip. He forced a turnover that jumpstarted the overtime winner against Anaheim. He one-upped himself by forcing a turnover and scoring a short-handed game-winner against the Sharks less than 24 hours later. Tuch now has seven goals and 21 points in 21 games including three short-handed goals. He has the early makings of a case for the Selke Trophy.
6. Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power and Bo Byram have all had their ups and downs this season. But it’s tough to deny the offensive impact those three make on this team. Now 21 games into the season, Power is tied for the league lead among defensemen with 13 five-on-five points. Byram is one behind him with 12. Dahlin, meanwhile, is fifth among NHL defensemen in points at all strengths with 19. Dahlin is still taking too many penalties, Power needs to get a bit stronger in his own end and the Sabres are giving up a bit too much offense with Byram on the ice. But those three can generate offense.
7. Buffalo’s second-liners Cozens and Jack Quinn are showing signs of turning a corner. Cozens has been trending in the right direction for a few weeks and scored his fourth goal of the season to tie the game against San Jose. Quinn played one of his best games of the season on this trip against the Ducks.
8. Kulich looks like he belongs. The 20-year-old briefly returned to the AHL when the Sabres were fully healthy, and he’s already showing signs of growing quickly this season. The game against the Ducks was his best of the trip. The Sabres outshot the Ducks 10-2 when Kulich was on the ice at five-on-five and had 75 percent of the expected goals and 71 percent of the scoring chances. Ruff trusted him to be on the ice during the overtime of that game in part because Kulich is winning more than 60 percent of his faceoffs. He rewarded that move by scoring the game-winner. Kulich is making a case to stick in the lineup. His scoring potential is significant, and that matters for a team that needs more secondary scoring. But the small details of the game are showing up in Kulich’s game, too. When the whole team is healthy, Kulich still belongs on the roster and in the lineup.
9. Two players who shouldn’t be overlooked during this stretch: Peyton Krebs had a rocket of a shot to open the scoring for the Sabres in San Jose. He’s been one of Buffalo’s most consistently engaged players in front of the net. Meanwhile, Zach Benson continued to be a pest and helped cause the traffic in front that led to Cozens’ tying goal against the Sharks. He’s been a difference-maker in so many subtle ways.
10. What’s going on in the rest of the conference? The Sabres are now jostling with the Lightning for third place in the Atlantic Division. The Sabres have the edge in points, but the Lightning have a better points percentage. Either way, the Sabres put themselves in a strong wild-card position with this trip. The other contenders for the spot aren’t doing much to separate themselves, either. The Bruins are always a threat, but they just fired their coach and are not playing anything like the team that dominated the league two seasons ago. The Senators and Red Wings haven’t taken the next step. The Islanders are hanging around but have some key injuries. The bottom line is the Eastern Conference is wide open, and the Sabres took advantage of their schedule to themselves in an advantageous spot.
What’s next? The Sabres host the Wild on Wednesday and the Canucks on Friday before traveling to play the Islanders on Saturday to close out the month of November.
(Top photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
