BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Sabres’ season has been a miserable slog, but their home win against the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday afternoon gave just over 16,000 fans in Buffalo a rare reason to go home satisfied.
With 2:33 to play in the third period, it looked like Jack Eichel was going to spoil an otherwise strong game from the Sabres. The home fans booed the former Sabre every time he got the puck throughout the game, and those boos got even louder when he tapped home a rebound to give the Golden Knights a 3-2 lead. Eichel skated toward the boards and raised his hands to the crowd in celebration.
Then shortly after that, Tomas Hertl tried to help Eichel rub it in further. Skating down ice with Buffalo’s goalie pulled, Hertl had a look at the open net. He passed up the backhand shot and tried to dish the puck back to Eichel. Peyton Krebs was backchecking hard for the Sabres and dove to knock the pass away, giving the Sabres possession.
That gave the Sabres one last shot to tie the game late. And a lot of little things needed to go right for that to happen. First, Ryan McLeod won a faceoff against Eichel. Then Tage Thompson and Bo Byram needed to make a play to keep the puck in the offensive zone. And finally, Alex Tuch set a perfect screen to block Adin Hill’s vision so Rasmus Dahlin’s one-timer blew right by him.
“I just think a total lack of respect,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said about his team’s performance. “That’s probably most of the night. But the way it kind of ended sums that up.
“I’d like to see him shoot the puck into the net and end the game. I think the whole team would like to see that.”
Hertl gave the Sabres a break, but they still needed to do something about it. The way this season has gone, the Sabres have too often folded at any sign of adversity. This time, they answered.
Dahlin’s goal sent the game to overtime, and the Sabres won in a shootout on a decisive goal from Tuch.
“Unbelievable,” Dahlin said of the team’s response to Eichel’s late goal. “We want to do something good here.”
RASMUS DAHLIN TIED THE GAME WITH 13 SECONDS LEFT pic.twitter.com/ImpaRWpPDJ
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) March 15, 2025
There hasn’t been much good about this Sabres season. They are in last place in the Eastern Conference and trending toward a bottom five finish in the NHL standings. Their inconsistency has been mind-boggling. They’re 2-6-1 in their last 10 games, and those wins have come against the Oilers and Golden Knights, two legitimate Stanley Cup contenders.
“It seems like we play a lot better against the good teams in this league,” McLeod said. “I don’t know if we take our foot off the gas or think it’s going to be an easy night against the teams who aren’t as high up in the standings. I think if we go in with the mindset that we’re playing a Vegas or an Edmonton every night, it’s going to do us better than thinking it’s going to be a point night or an easy night. These are building blocks for us.”
The obvious caveat is that late-season success doesn’t always carry over into the following October. Sabres fans don’t need a reminder of that after the last few seasons. A few impressive wins aren’t going to change a lot of minds in Western New York when this season ends without the playoffs for the 14th straight season. But this team can’t go through the motions, either.
There have been signs they aren’t going to do that. One came against the Red Wings on Wednesday when Thompson jumped in to defend Josh Norris and then other Sabres joined the fight. That same game, Alex Tuch fought after Jacob Bryson took a hit to the head. On Saturday, Jiri Kulich was on the receiving end of a hit to the head from Brett Howden, and Krebs immediately dropped the gloves. A few minutes later, Jordan Greenway fought Keegan Kolesar.
“That is what we need every response, every instance,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “It was missing earlier in the year, the Devil game. That’s an automatic in and love what Krebs did.”
Dahlin said the Sabres have had a lot of recent talks as a team about how they want to play the remainder of the season. He said there’s a “different vibe” around the team right now.
“Guys are stepping up and being really good leaders,” Dahlin said. “Guys want to be here. We want to make a difference. A lot of things you guys don’t see.”
Consistency within games and throughout a season has eluded the Sabres. But if they can at least use the final month of the season to become a more tight-knit group on the ice, that would be a step in the right direction.
“You clearly see we’re a bit of a different team now with Krebs today, Greener,” Dahlin said. “We’re stepping up for each other, and now we look like a real team now. This is a start of something good, I think.”
Quick hits
1. Ruff is starting to put a lot of faith in McLeod. Not only does McLeod get the prime matchup minutes against top players on the other team, but he’s now getting power-play time for the Sabres. On Saturday, he made a play on the power play to force Alex Pietrangelo into a careless pass up the middle of the ice. Jason Zucker picked it off and scored. McLeod also had a goal of his own against Vegas and finished the game with 22:08 of ice time. He now has 36 points, easily a career high, and is plus-10 through 62 games.
2. For the second straight game, Zach Benson made a noticeable impact in a top-six role. He played alongside McLeod and Zucker, and the Sabres had 73-percent of the scoring chances when Benson was on the ice at five-on-five. On Wednesday against the Red Wings, Benson got an audition on the top line with JJ Peterka out with a lower body injury. He had an impressive assist with a no-look pass to Norris and then later scored a goal on the power play.
Benson has been praised since he entered the league for his play away from the puck, his tenacity on the forecheck and the fact that he’s rarely out of position. It’s easy to forget he was a prolific scorer in junior, because the 19-year-old has been stuck in a bottom-six role for most of the year. You could argue he shouldn’t have been in the NHL so soon, but Benson has the confidence and mental makeup to withstand learning on the fly at the top level. He brings a different skill set to those lines because of the way he forechecks, retrieves pucks and has the vision and quickness to make plays down low. He’s not the fastest player and doesn’t have an overpowering shot, but the Sabres have plenty of shooters in the top six. Mixing and matching skill sets is important. Benson should continue to get looks with high-end offensive linemates so the Sabres can get a gauge of his potential in that role.
3. The Sabres are giving Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen a massive workload this season. He has 49 games played. Only Connor Hellebuyck and Andrei Vasilevskiy have played more. That might be negatively impacting his performance. This week, he was rock solid against the Oilers and Golden Knights but then had a rough outing against the Red Wings allowing seven goals on 29 shots. He’s allowed five goals or more in three of his last six starts. At the very least, the Sabres are going to learn what Luukkonen looks like late in the season with this type of workload. Luukkonen hasn’t been nearly as consistent this season, and his backup, James Reimer, is on a one-year contract. Devon Levi is having a terrific season in Rochester and looks ready to make the jump to the NHL next season. But a Luukkonen-Levi tandem is a risky proposition for the Sabres.
4. Norris was out of the lineup on Saturday because of what Ruff described as a mid-body injury. Ruff said it wasn’t anything that happened against the Red Wings, it was an injury he’s been dealing with.
Peterka missed his second straight game with a lower-body injury, but Ruff expects him to join the team for the road trip next week. Kulich didn’t finish the game against the Golden Knights after taking a hit to the head. Ruff said he seemed ok after the game, but the team will need to see how he responds tomorrow to know what his timeline for a return is. Jacob Bernard-Docker, acquired from Ottawa in the Dylan Cozens trade, got his immigration situation settled and joined the team for practice Friday. Ruff said there’s a chance he’ll work him into the lineup during the road trip.
(Photo: Timothy T. Ludwig / Imagn Images)
