Buffalo Sabres roar back from three down to beat Detroit in overtime

Buffalo Sabres roar back from three down to beat Detroit in overtime

A fun one in Detroit has the Sabres back in the win column. We’re recapping it here on the Locked On Sabres podcast. [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 weekend edition of the Locked on Sabers podcast. Thanks for making us your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you listen to your podcast. You can watch the show on YouTube. You can also be a part of our Locked Sabers text club. Join subtext.comlockons if you aren’t already a subscriber. Sneaky Jody Biosi here on the podcast part of the locked on podcast network. Now the number one sports podcast network 5 to4 the Sabres get the win over the Detroit Red Wings. It was a fun one. It was not very fun through two periods of play but the Sabres claw their way back. They fight all the way back from down four to one to win it 5 to4 in overtime. We’ll go through what some of the goals looked like, some of the biggest performers from from this game, the numbers involved, and also a look at Rasmus Dene returning to the lineup. The importance of Dalene being back in the lineup and his impact on the game tonight. Maybe not just um in terms of his play, but an emotional um I think energizing moment for the Sabres. This game really could be that. uh you hope your fingers are crossed that this could be a galvanizing effort that um they could build off of into the next couple of games and into the next couple of weeks. So, we’ll get to it all coming up on today’s show. Um today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Download the FanDuel app right now by visiting FanDuel.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. So, first road of the season. Is that not amazing? By the way, this season began in early October and here we are on November 15th, more than a month into the year before we’re able to say first road win of the year. To be fair to the Sabres, they have not played a ton of road games, but it was their eighth eighth road game of the season before they finally got the win. So, they did. First time that I guess we’re doing a show talking about a road win by the Buffalo Sabres since looking back at last year. They did not win a road game since April 1st when they played the Ottawa Senators and won 5 to2 late late in the year. So, it’s been more than 7 months since we have talked about a win in another team’s building. Well, here we are. Dene back on the ice and they’re able to get the win. And again, it was a comeback effort. The Sabres were a little up and down in the first couple of periods. I did think the Detroit was by at least a bit the better team through 40 minutes of hockey and especially through, you know, um it would have been really 37 minutes of hockey when they had the 4 to1 lead still. Josh Don gets that second goal by Buffalo very late in the second period. Before that had happened though, all the momentum was going in Detroit’s direction. A lot of the same problems that you had seen from this team in recent games were um appearing. Other than I don’t really think there was ever a point where I was thinking, man, the Tage Tuck Mloud line really just non-existent in this one because in some of those previous games that had been true where they were the problem, they were the the people that were missing in action. In this game, I thought Tae Thompson from beginning to end was it was his best game of the season and there were highlights involved, but I thought he was after pucks, he was winning battles, he was skating with a lot of speed in this game and that was maybe my favorite part of the game is he was always on the move and that allowed him to be more aggressive. Now, those were some of the things that were lacking from Tage in recent games. It seemed to me that nobody was more energized by Dalene’s return than Tage, which would make a little bit of sense because those two are kind of at the top of the food chain. And sometimes you don’t always feel like maybe you have all the help in the world, but you know, if you’re Tage, I always got Dalene. And if you’re Delen, I always got Tage. And Tage not having him for the last, you know, couple of weeks has probably been tougher for him. It’s been tougher for everybody. And uh Ta looked fired up in this game. And again, there were really every goal that they scored he was involved in except for the Ryan Mloud goal, the short-handed goal by Mloud, the opening goal by Alex Tuck. It officially goes down as unassisted. I wonder if they will change that overnight in the official um database because Thompson is the one that drives the net and creates chaos. John Gibson is able to get his glove on the puck for a split second, but not very long at all, which is why I wonder if they will retroactively give Tage an assist on that play. Um, but he created all the chaos that allowed Tuck to fly in and take it right off of uh Moider’s stick and put it into the back of the net. Um, it was all created by Thompson. And then the Josh Don goal a little bit later on. That is the goal that makes it 4 to2 late in the second period. Taage wouldn’t have had the he would have had the the third assists, I guess, if we were giving out three assists. So, he won possession in the offensive zone. He got it back to Bo Byum who then goes to Dallene and he takes the wrist shot and Don’s only able to deflect it. So he’s involved in that goal. He obviously goes coast to coast on the goal that makes it four to three early in the third. And then in overtime, what an effort by Thompson. Sure, he’s going against a guy that is a lot smaller than him in Alex Debrink, but for Thompson to come in with speed, again, this is where him being an aggressive skater in this game really helps because it’s not just size in that overtime goal. He’s coming through and he’s trying to he’s trying to roof it, right? trying to get a wrist shot off and win it right there with De Brinket in front of him and it gets blocked by De Brinket. But because Tage had him backing up so much, Thompson was coming into the zone with so much speed that after the puck is kind of laying down on the ice between Dbrink and Thompson. Who is moving backwards and who is moving forward? Dinket is moving back. Thompson still has a lot of that carryover speed. So, it’s a lot easier for him to to just throw de Brinket off of him because that’s the direction that Debrink’s already going because he’s backing him up. So, that combined with his size in that moment to throw a smaller player down to the ice and out of the play, right? He didn’t just knock to Brinket down. He threw him basically to the corner like out. Your day is your game is over. This is threeon two and we are winning it right here and now. He completely eradicates the brinket from the play. Makes it threeon two. Forces the Redwing defender to have to come down low and challenge him and then he makes the perfect read where you kind of see Tage on the back angle replay. He knows what he’s doing. He’s waiting for that Redwing to to leave Samson. Leave Samson. Come down to challenge him. And when that happens, Tage knows I’ve got him because now all I got to do is put a pass around behind my back to Samson, who now has a wide open opportunity. And good on Samuelson, by the way, because it could there were there are players that might not have thought in the moment, I got to shoot this. And they might have tried to find Dene back door who was open, but he was on his off hand. So, he would not have been able to one-time it, which means he would have had to collect it and then get the puck through while John Gibson was scrambling. Maybe the defenseman gets over. Smart play by Samuelson. You got the open shot. You got to take it there with Dale being on his off hand and he’s able to bury it for his third goal of the year. And Samson deserves all the flowers today because that is the rare Kevin Adams W is Samson. Again, there are not many of those, but one of them is this guy. He was to me an obvious buyout candidate in the summer. And I thought it was insane to not buy him out. I was not alone. There were a lot of people that thought the play is to buy out Matia Samuelson. So they didn’t do that. And remember what was the reasoning for that was not just that he had been a bad player for them for two years. It was also the guy is always injured and you have a long commitment made to him through to 2029. And there’s this weird rule in the CBA that you rarely see tested. I I had one buddy text me like, you know, there weren’t there probably aren’t a lot of GMs or there are no GMs. I would have bought out Samuelson that summer. And my immediate thought was, I don’t really know if we know that though because you never see that rule tested. You have to pay a guy so early and it has to go so wrong so quick to even get to a place where you’re thinking about buying a player out who’s 25 years old or younger because when that’s your age, the buyout is way easier. It would have been $700,000. I don’t remember I can’t remember a time where another GM was faced with a situation like that. Well, Adams decided, hang on to him. Let’s keep going. Get him healthy and maybe we’ll play him in a lesser role and that’ll work, too. And that was happening beginning of the year. He’s on the third pair. And it’s going really, really well. He has stayed healthy. Knock on wood. Everybody right now together. Knock on wood. That Matias Samson has stayed healthy. He did go down in this game when he got hit in the throat with a puck, but he was fine. came back and he’s gone from, hey, cool story. He’s a contributor on this team in a depth role to, oh, he’s back to being capable of playing on the top pair with with Deli especially, but I’m good putting him back on the ice for 20 minutes a night. He’s playing that well so far this year. I mean, there are some of these um game scorers that some of the analytics accounts I’ve seen that have done where Samuelson his impact so far this year or when he’s on the ice, he’s like top five, top 10 in the NHL at how well his team is doing when he is out there. So, it’s gone really well for him and he’s scoring goals. That is very rare. That is probably not going to continue, but he’s finishing right. He’s using that size. He’s getting a lot of weight on the stick. He’s been pretty accurate. His careerhigh in goals is four, which he had last year in 62 games. He had three in his entire career before that. And this year in 16 games, he already has three goals and four assists for seven points. Like he’s giving you more offensively than he ever has. What is amazing is he’s out there in the first place in threeon-ree overtime, right? Like he has played almost none. It’s like 90 seconds of threeon-ree overtime um before tonight. And I thought that immediately when he scored like he was out there because it’s a lot of open ice. It’s a lot of speed. It’s a lot of um stick handling and skill. Um Dene was out there too and I wondered that Samson might have been out there to allow Dalene to kind of be more aggressive, be more of a forward. I had said that last week actually or a couple weeks ago. I wonder if they want to try two defenseman out there to try to open up Dalene to be more like a forward. Well, Lindy, I don’t think he heard my podcast. He probably came to that conclusion on his own, I’m sure. And he tried it and Dalene doesn’t end up touching the puck, but it works out anyway because Samuelson is able to flow in there and and score the goal. So, really good for him and he deserves his credit today because he’s been one of the most consistent sabers really from beginning to end this year and he’s doing it playing 21 minutes a night. So, hats off to Samson so far this year. And he gets the game winner uh for the Buffalo Sabres. Second gamewinner of the year, by the way, which ties his careerh high for Well, actually, he had here it is. He had two game-winning goals on his career going into this season. He’s got two in 16 games. Not even winning that many games. He’s got two already this year. when we come back, the impact Denim’s return has on this team and whether they could carry that momentum going forward. Some numbers on this game as well for you. That’s coming up here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast. Today’s episode of the Lockdown Sabers podcast is presented by Monarch. Let’s be honest, most of us do not even know where all our financial accounts are or let alone what they’re worth. between 401ks, savings, investments, easy to lose track, and that can mean leaving money on the table. That’s why you got to use Monarch, an all-in-one personal finance tool that will bring your entire financial life together in one clean, easy to use interface on your laptop or your phone. You can organize your accounts, track your spending, get a better handle on your investments without ever having to touch a spreadsheet. Monarch’s visual dashboards and smart tools make it so much easier to understand where your money’s going and how to make it work a lot harder for you. Don’t let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use code locked on NHL at monarch.com for 50% off your first year. That’s monarch.com. Code locked on NHL for half off your first year. Back here on the Locked On Sabres podcast. Sneaky Joe Debbiosi 54. for the Sabres get the win over the Detroit Red Wings in this game. Sabres were outshot by just one, 28-27. Power play goals, one for Detroit on five opportunities, none for the Sabres on four. I did not like their power play in this game at all. However, while the Red Wings might have been one for five on the power play, the Sabres were also one for five on the Red Wings power plays. So, special teams comes out to a wash. Short-handed goal for Buffalo. Shorthanded goal for uh or power play goal for the Red Wings. Shot attempts 58 to 54 in favor of Detroit. Scoring chances, however, 30-21 in favor of Buffalo and expected goals were uh just about a wash. 2.5 for Detroit, 2.4 for the Sabres, which means the goalending numerically, analytically, not a strong night. It’s not a strong effort. Um, your total expected goals for the game was 4.9 and you had nine goals scored in total. John Gibson, I thought, did not have a great game. Ryan Mloud beat him coming in kind of from far away. Mloud shoots and, you know, I know he he knows what he’s doing. He sees an opening. He’s not going to wait, but Mloud takes that shot on the short-handed breakaway from from pretty far out. He didn’t really get too close. He knew his spot and he beat Gibson right above the pad. Like, you know, that’s a blocker save. You want a blocker save from a a really good goalender. Gibson is supposed to be that. Um, but he doesn’t give it to you there. Even the Samson goal, the Samson goal, he doesn’t pick a corner, you know, he doesn’t beat you five hole. It’s a low but just a little bit off the ice wrist shot that kind of beats you on the side. Um, I didn’t like Gibson in this game. It’s funny that Colton Ellis allowed a goal and a half above expectation in this game because I did like him at times and I’m trying not to be biased because I do really want Ellis to work out for this team. But he made some big saves when they really needed him to. Third period, I think it’s de Brinket coming down. The Sabres have pulled to within one and the Red Wings can really put the nail in the coffin and they get behind the Sabres defense. They go from the short side to the far end kind of the same way Tage scored, right? Like he comes in on one side, he goes all the way, whips across to the other, and he’s able to tuck the puck in. That was what the the de Brinket almost goal was. And Ellis goes side to side, makes a big crucial save, and then the rebound is laying there. Here come the Red Wings. Before anybody’s a just a hair before anybody’s able to get their stick on it, Ellis is able to pounce on it. He had some really nice saves in this game. I think he deserves to have another start here in the next week or so. Um, I would absolutely keep him in the rotation. It was not a great game from him. Um, I also didn’t think it was a horrible game. Again, numbers-wise, it was not a great game. He allowed a goal and a half more than he should have um by expected goals, but I would keep going with Ellis. I thought he was fine in this one. So obviously the big story going into tonight’s game and even you know on the ice impact Rasmus Dalene in his return plays 27 minutes for the Buffalo Sabres which obviously led the way. It actually led the way by almost five minutes. Samuelson was second at 2231 played in this game. Um, two assists for Dene. And when he was on the ice at five on five only, Dalene, the Sabres, when Dene was on the ice at five on five. Let’s see. He Do we They got to have numbers up on him, don’t they? Yeah, there it is. Uh, the Sabres outshot Detroit 7 to4. Outscored them one to nothing. um 64% expected goals percentage, 6 to5 scoring chances, like they were the better team and he’s often playing the better lines. So big impact. Byum not having to be their number one defenseman, Power even not having to be their number one defenseman, I think is a big big deal for them. So listen, part of this is a little um you know, kind of sucks that hey, Darene comes back. Maybe things can finally start to turn around. Michael Kessler goes out. If you missed it, Kessle Ring, lower body injury, did not return. Lindy said it could be a while. He was seen in a walking boot after the game. So, it’s like, oh, finally was getting my blue line back. Uh, nope. You don’t get it back fully. They’ve not really had their blue line altogether all year. And they probably won’t for a while. But listen, losing Castle Ringle Stink. Diene’s a whole another animal. It’s just they are such a different team when he is available to them. They need him and they need him badly. There’s a reason the record is what it is in the last two years like 010 and one or whatever it is when he doesn’t play. They need him to have any chance at all. And tonight you felt that. I think you felt he’s got to be available to you. He’s got to play huge minutes or you don’t really stand a chance. He’s just so good at controlling the game and making skilled plays. One thing that drives me nuts about the Sabres, they have so many players that make little mistakes on every single shift because they might not be as quick at thinking the game as they are at playing the game. Dene thinks the game faster than he plays the game. And I love players like that. And I think you got to have them. And when you can match that thinking ability has with the physical tools that he has, that’s when you get an elite player like he is. Um, and at the same time, credit to everybody involved, right? One, Dalene taking priorities, you know, putting priorities where they need to be. Your fiance is going through a major medical, you know, journey here. to go back during the season. It’s got to be tough for a guy. When you’re the captain and the star of a team that’s in a situation like this, it’s not as easy as it probably sounds. Um, and for the Sabres, whether it’s Terry Pagula, Lindy Ruff, Kevin Adams, to allow him to do that because maybe maybe they’ve learned something from their last captain, their not of Poso, the one before that, their last star player and letting the relationship become poisonous because of simple um courtesies that they would not extend to him and in this case knowing hey we got we will do whatever we can to support you and um credit to them for doing that with Rasmus Dalene whether they learned a lesson or not whatever they deserve credit for letting him do that and um it didn’t end up going as long as I thought it would. I thought he could be gone for a while and it only ended up being what a week and a half not even. So Dene’s back and again galvanizing moment for the team. Man, you hope so because it’s they’re not dead. I think he might have come back at just the right time hockey-wise to stay in it. They are still six points back. Um and they’re in last place still. So it’s not to say they don’t have some work to do. They have a lot of work to do. They have to climb over every team in the conference basically. But right now, Islanders and Rangers are your two wild card teams. You can catch those two teams. Islanders especially. You could be better than the Islanders. Boston won’t stop winning, but I believe they’ll come back to earth at some point. So, get your wins. Don’t Don’t fall below six. Don’t get to double digits. Get some wins here. You got your best player back. Ta played great and, you know, get let’s by little get back in the race. Um, very hopeful that that’s about to happen here. Well, what kind of opportunity do they have next? We’ll get into what’s coming up on the Sabers schedule and what the goalie decisions could be coming up here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast. Today’s episode of Lockown Sabers is presented by Drip Drop. When you’re hydrated, everything just works better. Focus, energy, mood, your skin. 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All right, wrapping things up here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast and we will take a look at what is next. So that was their first road win of the year. They don’t have to play on the road for a minute. coming up. They have four consecutive home games coming up. The Sabres do Monday against Edmonton, Wednesday against Calgary, Friday against Chicago, and then Sunday against Carolina. The next three games especially are the big opportunity. You got a great team in the Edmonton Oilers, but they are they are coming out east. Long trip for them. And if I am correct, let’s take a look actually at their schedule real quick because they’ll have this trip here. Are they already on it? They are. They played in Carolina today. They’ll get tomorrow off and then they play Buffalo. So, actually, you caught them right in the middle of an East Coast trip. They played Philly last week, Columbus this past week, Carolina, now Buffalo. So, I guess they might be adjusted to it. So maybe not the strongest point at the moment. Um them coming out East because they’ve been out east for a little bit here. So that’s a tough game, but then after that, I really like the idea of you winning back-to-back games against Calgary and Chicago. And that’s with Chicago being better this year. I mean, they have a good record. They are in a playoff spot, 95 and four on the year, but winnable game. They’re probably a little not quite as good as their record shows at the moment. And Calgary is just a team in total dysfunction. ready to blow it up. 512 and two. They are last in the NHL by four points. There’s nobody within four points of them right now at the bottom of the standings. Minus 18 goal differential. One of the worst in the league. Calgary, that’s a must-win game. You got to beat a team that’s down in the dumps like that. But four game home stand, you’re six points out right now. You’re just trying to stay in it, you know, possible eight points. What should we want? I would say six. Six is a good result. Five is acceptable. I wouldn’t want to go any lower than five because you want to gain a point a week, right? And four, you’re not doing that. Five, you might be doing that. Six, you probably are doing that. So, I’d like to see them find their way to six. Either go three 0 and two or two, well, that’ be two 0 and whatever. You know, find your way to six points. However you want to do it. You want to get a couple overtime games in there and you win two others, fine. Um, Monday though against the Edmonton Oilers, that is when we will talk to you next. We will preview McDavid. And by the way, Matt Seavoy, I want to revisit that a little bit because it was a big move when they made that, right? Ryan Mloud was not a household name. He was a scratch for Edmonton at the end of their previous season and the Sabres traded a top 10 pick for him. Like that is going out on a limb. Matt Seavoi can’t really figure it out here. I mean, he’s got a couple points his last couple games, but five points in 19 games. So, we’ll take a look back at that trade and um the social media fun that Saber fans sometimes have with that trade as well. So, that and more coming up on Monday’s edition of the Lockown Sabres podcast. Enjoy your weekend. Go Bills. You want any more uh hockey talk, check out Lockdown NHL Game Night. That’s available wherever you listen to your podcast on YouTube as well. Talk to you Monday here in the Lockdown Sabers podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

The Buffalo Sabres were down 4-1 in the 2nd period in Detroit on Saturday night. With the season getting away from them, the Sabres got a much needed comeback win, scoring four unanswered and winning 5-4 in overtime over the Red Wings. Tage Thompson was dominant in the game, having a role in four of the five goals, including throwing Alex DeBrincat to the side as he set up Mattias Samuelsson for the overtime winner.

Sneaky Joe talks Rasmus Dahlin’s return and how massive that could be for the Sabres in saving their season. And should Colten Ellis continue to be in the goalie rotation after giving up four goals to the Red Wings? Plus, Ryan McLeod’s huge goal at a huge time for Buffalo.

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