Well, that was some fun. For the first time this season, the Sabres earned a victory as they defeated the Blue Jackets on Columbus Day, 4-2.
Jack Eichel. It’s only the third game of the season, but there’s a good chance that his goal will be one of the best we see all season…from anyone one the team. Eichel didn’t have much help, but he made something happen and the crowd went bananas.
It’s such a small sample size, but Eichel is the real deal. He’s making moves and plays that don’t result in goals, and even those are pretty impressive.
It was great to see Ryan O’Reilly collect his first goal as a Sabre, too. His line was working hard and he was rewarded for it.
Matt Moulson quietly had a three-point game, which is hard to do. He didn’t even make the top three stars of the game.
In the three games this season, the Sabres have looked like a better team in each one. I’m not saying that only because they won, but they actually are playing better hockey.
The special teams has been interesting to watch. They’ve been working on the power play and it showed on Monday as they scored three times with the man advantage.
They did have back-to-back chances on the power play early in the game, and it looked pretty bad. We had trouble just entering the zone and Columbus would easily dump the puck out. There was one or two good chances, but not much else generated. Fortunately, there were different results later in the game.
As for the penalty kill, that took a hit after this one. Coming into the game with a perfect percentage, Buffalo allowed two goals. The goals brought Columbus within one, but it was nice to see the Sabres bounce back.
After building a 2-0 lead, I’m used to seeing the Sabres try to sit back and defend that lead, which usually doesn’t work too well. Today, I was glad to see that they kept putting on the pressure. It helped that Nick Foligno took three penalties, but still, the Sabres took advantage of their opportunities.
It helped that they got the win, but this game was just pure fun to watch. For two teams that came into the game 0-2, it was entertaining. The third period especially, but either way, the Sabres got that first win under their belt. Let’s see how they do on the road. The Florida trip is coming up. Panthers on Thursday. Lightning on Saturday.
Let’s go Buffalo!