The Buffalo Sabres remain at the bottom of the NHL’s Eastern Conference standings.
But at least they’ve been showing some signs of life as of late.
The Sabres have won two straight games and have points in six of their past eight games (5-2-1) entering Saturday’s matchup with the visiting Seattle Kraken.
The Sabres are coming off a 4-0 victory Thursday in Ottawa as goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 35 saves for his second shutout of the season and improved to 5-1-1 over his past seven starts.
“That was a game we kind of haven’t done enough times this season, where kind of everybody focuses on their own job,” Luukkonen said. “I feel like everyone did their job really well. I think it was a good team effort and that’s how we have to play to win.”
Jack Quinn scored twice, Ryan McLeod had a goal and two assists and Dylan Cozens also tallied a goal for the Sabres.
Despite their last-place standing, the Sabres entered Friday just seven points out of the conference’s second and final wild-card playoff spot.
“We talked about the fact that we get to play all the teams we need to catch (in the standings),” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “When you’re playing those teams, you’ve got to play well. It doesn’t matter where you’re playing; playing at home or on the road, you’ve got to play well. We know we’ve dug ourselves a hole but there’s light at the end of the tunnel. And I said this: ‘To come out of something we went through, you’re going to come out a better team.'”
Quinn, the eighth overall pick in the 2020 NHL draft, had just one goal through the first 24 games of the season. He has scored six over the past 11 games.
“I think my game is to be an offensive producer and score, so some tough times at the start of the year,” Quinn said. “Things were feeling a lot harder for me than years before, for some reason. But it’s nice to see some of the work I’ve been putting in pay off.”
The Kraken are winless in their past four games (0-3-1) and have lost three in row, including a 6-2 defeat Thursday at Columbus when they allowed four unanswered goals in the second period.
Offense has been a problem for Seattle, with just two goals in each of their past three games.
Eeli Tolvanen snapped a 12-game drought without a goal by tallying twice Thursday.
“I think the second period is embarrassing from us,” Tolvanen said. “We have to do something, get some life on the team. … We gave them all their goals. Sloppy D-zone turnovers.
“I feel like when we play a simple game, then we are at our best. Then when we start trying to make fancy plays, that’s when we get scored on.”
Philipp Grubauer, making his sixth consecutive start, was pulled at 15:45 of the second period after allowing five goals on 19 shots. Joey Daccord (lower body), who was activated off the injured list Wednesday, stopped all four shots he faced the rest of the way and will likely get the start Saturday.
The Kraken are seventh in the Western Conference’s wild-card race and have nine points to make up for the final berth.
“It starts with this road trip, but our focus is going to become quite narrow-minded here to win some hockey games here in the next 16 games (before the break for the Four Nations Faceoff) … to get back into this thing,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said.
–Field Level Media
