Buffalo rides Bowen Byram in beating Ottawa
Boxscore
Score: Buffalo Sabres 3-2 Ottawa Senators (OT)
Shots: BUF 25-26 OTT
Buffalo Sabres Goals: Bowen Byram (7) (Greenway, Dunne), Noah Ostlund (6) (Byram, Tuch), Bowen Byram OT (8) (McLeod, Samuelsson)
Ottawa Senators Goals: Ridley Greig (3) (Giroux), Tim Stutzle PPG (18) (Batherson, Cozens)
Quick Thoughts
Fourth Line Great
The Sabres fourth line has been very good in recent games, and were excellent tonight. Despite going up against the Sens top line (including enfant terrible Brady Tkachuk), they outhustled their hosts and ended the night with 11-5 shot advantage for the 10:30 they were on ice together. When you consider that the other three lines were -10, -7 and -7 for the night, that line deserves a lot of credit for this win.
Jordan Greenway’s dish to Bowen Byram for the game opener was a masterpiece, deserving of a spot on any Christmas dinner table.
Bo Baby
Bowen Byram did his trade value (or contract value, if you will) no harm whatsoever with a three-point performance. He had a hand in most positive things that the Sabres did tonight, and when he’s in this kind of form, it does make one giddy to think about how good Buffalo’s blue line can be.
Sometimes, when it’s your day it’s your day, and today was Bo’s day. He didn’t look like he had caught his one-timer properly, but the overtime winner fluttered into the top left corner where mama hides the cookies. Felt right bringing out the RJ reference because of how he soundtracked so many epic battles against the Sens.
Lyon outduels Ullmark
A big portion of the Sabres fanbase have had a bitter aftertaste in their mouths watching Linus Ullmark walk away from Buffalo and then star in Boston, but he’s come down to earth quite a bit in Ottawa. Tonight, Alex Lyon was the better goaltender and the Sabres won because of that.
Even with just over a minute of regulation to play and Lyon sprawling after an aggressive move outside the blue paint, the journeyman goalie made a great save to keep the scores level.
The stats matched the eyetest too, with Lyon giving up only two goals on an expected goals against of 3.41 while Ullmark was beaten three times on a measly 1.27 expected goals against.
Even Matchup
The Sabres and Sens are a lot closer than the Canadian side’s fans would like to believe. Coming into the game both were on long winning streaks, both “in the hunt” for a playoff spot, and were mostly equally matched in chances, shots and goals throughout the game as well.
Both had 2-4 overtime records before today too, but the Sens are marginally ahead of Buffalo going into Christmas thanks to the loser point they picked up tonight. There was very little to separate the two teams today, and we look forward to more significant division battles with an old rival.
K-Ring’s Leash Shortens
We’ve had some patience with defenseman Michael Kesselring given how long he’s been out injured, but the fans and coaches’ patience is getting severely tested. I had covered how the Kesselring-Power pairing had struggled in the two previous games to the Devils win, and they were back to their awful days again tonight, going 6-13 in shots.
He also took a couple of poor penalties, the first when he high-sticked Tkachuk and was lucky not to draw an additional two minutes for drawing blood, and the second when his lazy trip led to the Sens scoring their second tying goal of the game. Kesselring was only on ice for 12:39 today.
Penalty Kill Faltering
The Sabres penalty kill remains one of the top in the league, but has now given up eight goals in the last ten games. Luckily we are 7-3-0 in those last ten because they do need to tighten things up in the back.
Tonight on Stutzle’s goal, all four penalty killers were guilty of overpursuing the puck, and all ended up sucked into one corner leaving the forward wide open to slam home past Lyon.
At The Horn
The Buffalo Sabres. Playing in meaningful games at Christmas. Winning seven games in a row – that’s the longest active streak in the league right now. All have been strong, hardworking efforts with all facets of the game working and supporting other areas wherever they’re struggling. Complementary hockey baby.
Damn, we should all have a whole other level of love and respect for the Sabres right now. 18-14-4, the true .500, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays my friends!
Comment of the Game
JediLightSabre13 has the comment of the game for very obvious reasons since it’s about Bowen Byram, the Ullmark killer, just update that now to 4 goals in 3 games on 4 shots against the former Sabres goalie.
Bo has 3 goals in 3 games on 3 shots agaisnt Ullmark?