The Buffalo Sabres erupt for EIGHT GOALS in their first win of the year against the Ottawa Senators

The Buffalo Sabres erupt for EIGHT GOALS in their first win of the year against the Ottawa Senators

Couldn’t have been a better first win for the Sabres. Eight goals. Eight goals. Sabres beat the Senators. We’ll talk about it coming up here on Locked on Sabres. [Music] You’re Locked On Sabres, your daily podcast on the Buffalo Sabres, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. What is up everybody and welcome in to this Locked on Sabers podcast here on a Wednesday night. Thanks for making us your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcast. You could check us out on YouTube. Be sure to like and subscribe there. Want to become a part of our Lockdown Sabers text club? You could do that as well. Head over to joinsubtex.com/lockdons. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Download the FanDuel app right now. Visit fanuel.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. Sneaky Joe Debbiosi after a win. Haven’t been able to do that in a long time, especially a game that is uh still meaningful because that wasn’t necessarily happening at the end of last year all the time. It’s nice to have a W in the win column. The Sabres blow out the Senators blow out that that work uh 8 to4 over Ottawa. There is a lot to get to from this game. the amazement of the score at the end of it and the way that it played out, the es and flows, the the emotional changeover of being mad after the the the goal that goes in for Ottawa just between the legs of um Alex Lion, the challenge not working out, the building getting a little hyped, and then the furious run in the second period only to have them look like they’re about to blow it early in the third period and then immediately. Just lot to get to on this game. It was a really really fun game for the Buffalo Sabres. It really reminded me of I mean I mean the score is indicative of this of course number one, but even just the the vi the es and flows of the game, the emotional change uh roller coaster. It was a 2022 23 Buffalo Sabres game through and through. That is a night that is a game that this team had a lot of a couple of years ago and that’s why that team was so fun and here was a night where you really had that. Uh I love that it happened against Ottawa. Ottawa still one of those few teams left for me and this is not for I’m sure everybody because your team is bad this long. It’s kind of hard to get worked up over an opponent and really generate that hate. But I will I think I will always have that for Ottawa. going back to 0506 and 0607. Um I don’t necessarily have it when when we’re going into games, but once games begin against the Senators, I am like, “Oh, bleep these guys.” I am just I hate this team. Um even though there’s not many individuals on the team I hate. I actually don’t think I can name one. I mean, Brady Kachchuck when he’s out there is an easy player to dislike when he’s on the other team, but he’s not out there tonight. So, it’s it’s the logo. It’s not even the jerseys, right? I got these red alternates tonight for Ottawa, which by the way, I thought were fine the beginning, but as uh I saw them, like the numbers are kind of hard to see. Um I liked the white at home. Love the white at home for the Buffalo Sabres. So that was a really cool feature. Lot to get to on today’s show and really I mean just diving right in on the game. It was a total total total change from what we saw in the first three games of the season. The Sabres, after scoring two goals in their first three, score eight on this night. After scoring zero power play goals on 11 tries in the first three games, the Buffalo Sabres scored three power play goals on two tries in this game. Um, that is not a typo. That is what the official stat sheet says. And I guess I missed that. I mean, there were multiple penalties against Ottawa when we got down to that uh scrum in the middle of the second period where Giru whacks uh Owen Power on the back of the leg. Power stands up for himself a little bit, throws some jabs in there. Scrum starts. Ottawa gets a couple penalties out of that. Buffalo only gets two. Um, so somehow someway the Sabres end up with only officially two power play opportunities and three power play goals for 150% which is kind of funny to look at. And sure, one of those goals is the luckiest goal you’ll ever see in your life. Jack Quinn with a prime scoring opportunity in the slot on the power play. doesn’t even come close to hitting the net, but he missed so bad that it ricochets off the glass off the back of the goalender Morelian. Melanian, I’m never going to get that right tonight. Uh, it’s late. Not used to doing shows this late. Um, he was not good on the night. I mean, man, what a difference between Lenus Allar and Merl Merlinian. I’m just going to go with Levi for tonight. Uh, but anyways, no mark. That was big. I thought that was big. Part of why I went for the under on this game, even with it being only five and a half goals, um was that all was I thought going to play and he did not. And that’s a big big difference. Um on this night, the goalender goes 70 731 save percentage. Sabres only had 26 shots on goal. Um 19 saves for the opposing goalender is about as bad as it possibly gets. So Ottawa Ottawa Ottawa Ottawa, man, I I bet that team to win the division. I picked them to win the division last week and I told you I love their roster and sure Brady Kachchuck is out and they don’t have their goalender tonight but wow what an embarrassing effort by the Senators um to now drop to one and three on the season that the Sabres might not have poured the shots on and they might have got a couple lucky goals. the Quinn goal off the back of the boards, the Jason Zucker goal, which kind of deflects in off his chest or off his body. Sure, they got a little bit lucky, but they had quality scoring opportunities and they had a lot of them. The the Sabres were buzzing in this game. The energy they had in the second and the third period, they outplayed Ottawa for long, long stretches of this game, far more often than they did in the first couple of games. So, while the shot totals don’t look great, I thought the Sabres were the better team on the night. And some of those numbers do represent that. Shots on goal in this game. Ottawa does outshoot the Sabres, 37-27, piling that up a little bit at the end. Power play I mentioned earlier, Buffalo 3 for two, Ottawa 1 for five shot attempts in this game, 78 for the Senators. 44 for the Sabres. Again, that’s kind of the quality versus quantity and where the shots are coming from. The Sabres 40 27 shots on goal out of 44 attempts. I mean most of their attempts were getting through a pretty good percentage whereas Ottawa 37 shots on goal on 78 attempts is less than half. So Sabres by percentage were better there. Scoring chances Ottawa 42, Buffalo 25. But the expected goals and some of this is the the power play opportunities. The Sabres got more than half of their expected goals on the night from the power play. Although Otto had more power play opportunities. So good job by the Savers penalty kill who also gets a goal on the night. 4.1 to 3.4 in favor of Buffalo for expected goals. But special teams was the name of the game tonight for the Sabres. They scored four of their eight goals on special teams and they scored their first four first four on special teams. Uh power play goal actually sorry four of their first five, excuse me. Jack Quinn with the the bounce goal in the first. Ryan Mloud short-handed. That was the biggest play of the night. Absolutely the biggest play of the night because that is a shift right after the Jake Sanderson goal where it’s a five on three and Tuck’s mad about a slashing call that was a little bit soft. The sky stick did break. Um it almost looked like it fell into two pieces though more than it broke. So maybe Tuck had a little bit of a defense on that one. But either way, they go to a five on three. Sabres kill the five on three, but then Quinn’s stuck on the ice and Sanderson is able to punch that goal home. A scrum in front. Sabres don’t really, you know, take men out in front of the net. Just squeaks through. I thought possibility for goalie interference, but I was not expecting that they were going to overturn that. Lindy was hot about it. The building seemed very frustrated at that point. And it was a little more directed towards the officiating, maybe a little bit more towards the Senators than the Sabres in this case. And the Sabres fed off that energy. And the the goal they get from Mloud was massive cuz that energized the entire arena, energized the whole bench. I mean, the first two goals the Sabres had scored this year, the Zucker goal and the Tage goal in the first three games, it was like, “All right, high five. We got a goal. Yeah, let’s go.” like not a ton of energy and this was Mloud scores and everybody erupts like all right let’s let’s go and it was after a great effort by those two Mloud and Benson on that penalty on penalty kill to get their chances I mean they almost scored before Mloud ends up um firing a wrist shot into the net with the goalie out of position the McBenson and Mloud I mean just a great job there both of those players had phenomenal nights that was the biggest shift of the game goal of the game, I thought, because it really got the Sabres off and running. And then it’s three goals in three and a half minutes. Alex Tuck, um, who I thought had a his best game of the season. It’s going to be true of a lot of guys in this one. Jason Zucker with that bounce power play goal. Jason Zucker with another power play goal where he beats the goalie clean. Um, assists all over the place for Zack Benson and Josh Don. Both those players end up with three on the night. Then we get to the third and I’m worried. How could you not be? 40 seconds in, Shane Pinto makes it five to three and it’s uhoh. That was quick. Twogoal game. Lot of time left. We’ve seen this movie before. It happened last year a lot. Let’s see if they can be different here. They’re supposed to be a better team at shutting plays down and being better in their own end. And Alex Lion has looked good in goal. Like, all right, let’s see it. And sure enough, a minute and 30 seconds later, a minute 35 seconds later, Larseller makes it five to four. Uh-oh, double double time. It’s five to four now. Lindy calls timeout. And I tweeted this out to be half kidding, but you know, maybe it’s true. Uh, like that’s I called it the greatest timeout in the history of hockey. Uh, again, I’m being I’m being snarky. I’m I’m joking a little bit. I’m sure if I could find something somebody will point me to an example, it’s better. But the results hard to speak for kind of speak for itself how well it goes. They call Lindy calls timeout and 17 seconds after they drop the puck, after the timeout, there’s Mloud again. And this was a great play overall. Josh Don, who Tuck called a dog in postgame. Make sure if you’re ever tweeting that out, it’s got to be D A WG on Josh Don. Josh Don has been the Sabres most consistent forward through three games. Um, he digs the puck out in center ice. Alex Tuck comes in on a rush with Mloud and those two on a rush because of their speed are dangerous to the two defenseman and they did push back the two defenders with their speed. M and Tucks able to drop a pass back to Mloud. Nice find and Mloud with the finish. Um really nice goal putting it over the shoulder of the goalender and he gets his second of the night. Six to four. Another big goal. Turn the tide. Don’t give some belief back into everybody that you’re gonna close this one out. And then 45 seconds later, Jack Quinn gets his second. Him and Krebs coming in on a rush. Um nice find by Krebs. A nice forehand backhand tuck it in by Jack Quinn. Nice goal by him. That was his second of the night. That one he actually I thought earned. And then um the Sabres are able to, you know, put the put the restraints on the Senators, keep them to the outside, uh bleed the clock, and get it down to the empty netter by Yuri Koulique with just just over 3 minutes to go and the Sabres win with an 8-4 win. Um some individuals that I want to get to when we come back, Don, we’ve already spoke a little bit about, and Zack Benson, who played his first game of the season. Those two did not score tonight, but huge, huge games by both of them. Get to them when we come back here on the Locked On Savers podcast. Today’s episode of the Locked On Savers podcast is presented by Monarch Money. 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Sneaky Joe Debiosi back here on the Locked On Sabres podcast. Sabres 8 to4 winners over Ottawa. First win of the season. One of my textters sent I did not fact check this but I’m going to run with it. I trust him. Um that the Sabres coming into the night obviously zero power play goals. No one in the league had less than that. Uh that going out of the game or when they scored their uh third power play goal, there were only five teams in the league that scored more power play goals in the Buffalo Sabres. Uh that’s how quickly it could change were still very very early on, right? Um, two individuals that I want to get to that I thought had tremendous games and one of them they they both kind of play similar roles on different lines. Josh Don, Zack Benson. Benson playing his first game of the year. These two players right now both playing in the top six. Benson, I think at some point that was inevitable. He was a first round pick and while he was more of a third liner in his first two years, um little bit on the first line at the end of last year, not surprised to see him on the top line to start this year. While Don little bit more I thought he’d be bottom six. Maybe there’s offensive upside. I’m not sure he ever was going to be a top six guy. Well, because of injuries, he’s getting a shot up there and it’s going really, really well. Benson on that line with Taage Thompson and Alex Tuck. He is a clear defined role. He is the dog of that line. He is a nightmare to play against. I mean, he’s not going to punish you with his hitting or anything like that. But watch Benson away from the puck defensively. When defensemen are trying to break out of their own end, that guy is just always in front of them, they can’t get by him, they can’t get around him, he causes them to turn back so often. He doesn’t always steal it. A lot of times he does actually cause the defenseman to come up towards him and then loop around because they don’t like what they see or they feel like they’re about to turn it over. Benson is just so good at that. He’s always in your space and that’s just him being a step ahead. So that’s Benson. Don is doing the same thing. He’s doing it a little bit differently. He’s doing it with more physicality. He’s doing it by just out working and hustling. Um Benson might be doing it a little bit more with his mind. We’ve talked about that a million times. But both players are doing the same role on their top two lines. And on this night, it went beyond that. They created offense. Both players with three assists, six assists between the two. Neither scored. Um but very very involved in a lot of these goals. These two players were awesome on the night. And for Benson, you know, his a couple of his are on the power play. One the Zucker goal. What a keep in the first Zucker goal. What a keep in by Benson. I did. I thought he didn’t actually get it. Watch that playback. If you watch it from the original camera angle, not the zoom in camera angle, Benson is at the point. They’re starting him on the point on the power play before he shifts down. And on this one, he still is at the point, but he flies in and he’s able to just narrowly keep this puck in play. I mean, it was real close. Um, by the way, I tweeted this out again, Benson’s skating is a,000% better this year. It is noticeable to me that he has gone from like statistically one of the slowest players in hockey last year. year. I think he was one of the five slowest players in hockey last year by NHL edge stats through one game and the preseason games. He’s just he’s totally faster. He’s getting the pucks quicker. Um he looks more dangerous when he has the puck offensively. Um I’m really impressed with what the work he did in the offseason on that front. I He’s not bigger yet. The man strength isn’t there. Um but he’s got one of the two down. I think he improved the skating enough that that’s going to help big time. And then Don again, like Don’s been their most consistent player through three games. And Lindy loved his game tonight. He talked about that. I don’t think Don is going anywhere. I think he is in the top six until he stops looking this good. Um, and Josh Norris being out for two months, Koulique would be the one that you would wonder, could he jump up and take his spot? Maybe if Koulik starts playing better. And Lindy did not want to give that to him tonight, by the way. Like he got the question like, “Did you like Kiki’s game more tonight?” And Lindy was like, “It was better, but he’s still not skating the pucks all the way.” And I thought I agreed with that, too. That there were a couple of plays where he got caught from behind that I I didn’t like necessarily. So, Kik jumping up in the top six, maybe that would be from a cloud spot anyway. Uh but maybe it would be for Don. I don’t think there’s any circumstance where Josh Dones coming out of their top six um in the next little bit. And while I was somewhat open to him being better offensively, I was not expecting it at all. Um guys in the league for a couple of seasons and you know it’s 19 points in 51 games and he’s a second round pick. It’s like I don’t know. Not a guy that I’m necessarily betting on becoming a 20 goal score, a 25 goal score. Beyond that, I’m not even sure. Um, three assists tonight. So, now it’s three assists in four games, three points, four games. You know, that looks a little bit better than where you were at with zero before. Um, but he’s contributing to these goals tonight. And I’m seeing offensive instincts from him. I’m seeing skating. I’m seeing stick handling, vision. I don’t know about a shot. I think I’d like to see more from that. Um there’s nothing I’ve seen from Don that makes me think he’ll be beating goalies one-on-one from distance. I think he he probably has to be a guy that will score in the gritty ways. Um, but that vision and that intelligence in the offensive zone, you could be a playmaker, you know, you could be a 20 goal, 40 assist guy as a ceiling and that’s perfectly fine. Um, I don’t know what a ceiling is. I don’t know if what that stat lines throughout there is sounds completely ridiculous or uh whether maybe that’s even low for a ceiling. Um, very curious to see what he will become offensively as we continue here. And he’s playing in these roles. He’s getting power play time too. Power play time for Josh Dome. Um yeah, how many of the second Zucker goal he got an assist on the power play. Um his other ones though were at five on five. So great game by both of those two. Love them. And um I think they’re critical to getting the rest of those top six forwards going right now. Thompson, Tuck, Mloud, and Zucker. All right. when we come back, the vibes increasing, what’s up next, and uh some of the lineup stuff could the win is nice, but when you kind of couple a win with, well, I’m getting these guys back, too, like you can instantly make yourself feel better. And uh this morning, no one felt great. Uh so, more on that when we come back here on the Lockdown Savers podcast. Today’s episode is brought to you by the FanDuel Sportsbook app. Uh, I messed up big time on my bet of the night for Buffalo and Ottawa under five and a half. Sabres cleared that in the second period by themselves. Well, third period by themselves. Um, they score eight. We got 12 goals. It went more than double the overunder total in this game. So, we’ll see what that number looks like going forward. If you want to check out all the odds on the Sabres or you want a little bit of extra action to have a rooting interest in the game or you’re all over football right now, college football or the NFL, FanDuel has an offer you don’t want to miss cuz right now new customers can bet just $5 and you get 300 in bonus bets if you win. That’s right. Just pick a bet, put down five bucks. If it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets you could use all across the app. So, what are you waiting for? or visit fanuel.com. Download the FanDuel app today and get started. Final segment here on the Lockdowns podcast. What is ahead for the Buffalo Sabres? Because you want to keep this momentum rolling. You want to keep the fan attitude rolling in this direction. Next up is not an easy one on paper. However, some up and down performances from the Florida Panthers. The Panthers who lost tonight um to Detroit by a 4 to one final lost back-to back games. They’re missing a couple of their top players. That is Saturday. So, couple of nights off for the Buffalo Sabres. Saturday for Sabres and Panthers. Florida plays Thursday night. So, tomorrow night against Ottawa or against New Jersey, excuse me. Then they have one day off. So Sabres will be the more well-rested team. They’re the home team for that game. So couple of advantages you would hope help them out in that regard. And then I think we’re getting closer. Talked to Lindy Ruff this morning at WGR and he said there’s a possibility we get Jordan Greenway by the end of the week and that Kessle Ring, Michael Kessle Ring is progressing in the right direction. Hasn’t started practicing yet though. So I don’t think Kessle Ring is a possibility for Saturday. I I hope he gets back soon though. I’m excited to see Kessle Ring. Um, Greenway, I’m not as excited to see Greenway back, but he’ll be an an ad to this lineup. I think he will give you more than Beck Malenstein would give you. Um, maybe I want to stop there, but that’s the that’s the obvious replacement. Or the obvious replacement is the guy got hurt tonight. Justin Danforth injured tonight, did not return with a lower body injury. So, that could just be one in, one out. And that I do believe is an upgrade. Uh, Greenway over Danfor Danforth. So, Greenway coming back, Castle Ring coming back. You get a win. Fans are a little bit happier. You got all these division games in a row. It’s early in the season and you got six straight division games. I mean, we didn’t play this game yesterday on the show, but if I had said, would you take four out of six? You would have said yes. I think I would have said yes. Now, after beating Ottawa, win three of the the final five. That’s perfectly reasonable. And then you’re looking at a pretty nice stretch over your division foes and you’re keeping you’re keeping pace on that front. So that’s what’s next up for the Buffalo Sabres. I still think Alex Lion will continue to get the nod. Um UPPL back practicing. He looks like he’s getting closer to return. We’ll see if he does a conditioning stint in Rochester. But in this game, you know, even this game, Alex Lion allows four on the night. Ottawa’s goal say expected goals was 3.44. So, you know, it’s not great, but it’s not three goals above expected that he allowed. Um, he’s been fine. He’s been fine. He’s been even stellar at times. And I would keep rolling with uh Lion. Keep him in a rhythm and don’t put Lucin in in there until you’re sure that he’s 100% 100% healthy. Buffalo and Florida coming your way this weekend. That is I think I covered it all. It was a great night. Great night to be in the arena if you took advantage of those $11 tickets. I mean, really, and we’ll get into this. It changes a little bit after a win. So much attention paid to the Buffalo Sabres by hockey media. Everybody’s talking about them, and I understand it. It’s early in the year. Everybody’s just getting their feet wet. The Sabres are a story, right? Like the drought and starting 0 and3 and booze in the crowd, firing the chant, firing the GM chants in the crowd. like they should be a story in the league. Um what they’ve done here is historic. Nobody has ever missed the playoffs this long in a row. So they should be talked about on a national stage and they were. Everybody was taking their turn. The spitting chicklets guys, Elliot Freiedman, um Jeff Merrick of the world like everybody everybody’s talking about the Sabres and um everybody was noticing tonight when they win score an eight. Um, and some of those things that were mentioned, there was a lot of rumors in the last 48 hours about Tuck and his extension, about Dalene and his loyalty maybe to the organization after um, his wife had that heart failure this off season and what the team did to support him and things like that. Um, but where Tae might be in thinking about the long term here and where Adams’s job status is, where Lindy’s status is, like there were just little blurbs and reports and rumors about all of this stuff. So, I want to dive into all of that this week, especially now that we have Wednesday night to Saturday afternoon without a game. So, um, stay tuned for that. We’ll break a lot of that down one by one and we’ll go through it. and a win maybe buys everybody a little bit more time to not be angry. So, that’s coming up next. If you would like to check out more in the hockey world on uh all that’s happening around the league, you can check out Locked on NHL game night. That is available wherever you listen to your podcast or on YouTube. You can check it out there as well. And we will talk to you on well, I guess Thursday night, Thursday afternoon. We’ll talk to you tomorrow here on the Lockdown Savers podcast. Thanks for listening. Talk to you then. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. your team every day.

The Buffalo Sabres get their first win of the season and it finally featured some offense! Eight goals of offense! Huge games from Zach Benson, Josh Doan, Ryan McLeod, Alex Tuch, and plenty of others finally got Sabres fans juiced up and into the game. Sneaky Joe breaks down the win, from the reviewed goal by Ottawa early on, to McLeod’s massive shorthanded goal, to Lindy Ruff’s timeout in the third period.

What signs did we see from this win that could carry into future games? Benson’s inclusion in the lineup could be the biggest thing to watch. Plus, the powerplay finally comes alive, even if it got a little lucky. And what’s ahead for the Sabres as they play almost everyone in the division in the next two weeks.

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