The Buffalo Sabres ranked among the NHL’s most disappointing teams this season while sinking into the Eastern Conference cellar, but they might have established a turning point following a particularly dreadful stretch.
Buffalo will shoot for a third straight win when it visits the St. Louis Blues on Sunday afternoon.
The Sabres have won back-to-back games for the first time since posting three straight victories from Nov. 20-23. After that run, they suffered a 13-game winless streak (0-10-3) before beating the New York Islanders and Chicago Blackhawks by the combined score of 13-3. Alex Tuch powered Buffalo with his third career hat trick in the win over Chicago.
“I think we know where we’ve been at and now, we’d like to turn the corner, turn the page and keep going in this direction,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “I think the focus, we talked about the focus coming out of the Christmas break and you really don’t know what you’re going to get after three days off, but I think they just proved that they were ready to come out and play.”
Forward Jack Quinn helped pull Buffalo out of its slump. After scoring one goal in his first 24 games this season, he has scored four in his past five games.
Ruff was encouraged by the chemistry Quinn formed with linemates Dylan Cozens and J.J Peterka.
“You look at those lines and how they seem to be gaining a little bit of traction when it comes to plays up ice and spreading the zone out,” Ruff said. “I know they gave us quite a few rush opportunities, which I thought we took advantage of, but it’s great to get the scoring from where we’re getting it.”
The Blues have also won their last two games. Before that, they struggled through a 1-3-2 stretch.
St. Louis matched its goal total from its previous four games in a 7-4 home win over the Nashville Predators on Friday night.
“We feel like it’s been close,” Blues defenseman Cam Fowler said. “Heading into the holiday break, I know the guys were a little disappointed we were having trouble scoring goals. We just knew if we stuck with it and continued to do the right things, things would turn around.”
Robert Thomas scored St. Louis’s first power-play goal since Dec. 10 on Friday. That breakthrough came after coach Jim Montgomery moved Thomas, the team’s top center, from the flank to beside the net in the top unit’s formation.
“It’s not too different,” Thomas said before Friday’s game. “We haven’t scored (on the power play) in the last seven games, so we need to change something. It’s been frustrating.”
Montgomery liked how his team quickly found its game after coming back from a three-day holiday break.
“I thought the speed of the game was good,” Montgomery said. “I thought our habits and details, which are what you’re looking for after a three-day break like that, that we just keep getting better and I thought we did.
“I thought our checking skills got better, I thought we started hanging onto pucks more and I thought our passing was pretty good all night.”
–Field Level Media;
