Thomas Vanek's world is a less turbulent place these days. It would appear as though he has found the happy balance of life between work and home. Call it maturity. Call it growing up. Call it relaxing and letting life happen organically. Call it trust in oneself and in the system.
Call it kismet. Fate? Destiny?
Whatever it is, IT agrees with Vanek, and Vanek agrees with IT.
The Kung Fu grip that Vanek had been gripping his twig with has now loosened.
The "old', swashbuckling Thomas Vanek has re-emerged, just at the very moment that his teammates have needed him the most.
For the second straight game, an offensive freakshow rolled into buffalo with a galaxy of stars in tow. The Sedins would be relegated to the subplot of this movie, as Vanek would steal the show again, as he had from Ovechkin, Semin, Backstrom, and Green on Saturday night.
On Monday morning, Vanek's wife delivered the young couples' twins sons. They now have three children. On Monday night, Vanek delivered an assist for each of his newborn sons. Saturday night, he scored the OT game winner. With that highlight reel goal, Vanek pierced the heart of the evil seven game home-ice losing streak that had been plaguing his team.
Suddenly, Van has found his mojo, and his team is on a newly mintyed two game win streak on home ice. As Vanek goes, so go the Sabres. You need only look further back to last April when Johnny Boychuk of the Bruins trucked Vanek and obstentsibly ended the Buffalo playoff run. With one fell low bridge of a swoop, Vanek was lost to a nasty knee injury and Buffalo was done like dinner.
Its all starting to come together right now for HDTV. His swaggah is back, and it has infected the whole squad.
HDTV bottomlined it on Monday night following his team's 4-3 OT win over the Nucks:
"We have always been a good team. We only needed a home win to get us moving. We had a losing streak, but oour guys still believed. We didn't panic. Its no fun losing. That sucked! I think we just kept practicing hard and now, we know we're going to turn it around".
By no means does Vanek think that two home wins and earning 9 out of 10 points in the past five games will create shangrila in Buffalo.
Vanek told me that there is no immediate "breather period" in the forecast for he and his team. "Look, we dug ourselves a huge hole. Now, we are digging ourselves out of it. The past four or five games we've been doing a good job, but, there are a lot of games left. We're righting the ship here pretty good, but, we gotta keep going".
I asked Vanek to extrapolate on his point about "we". Do you mean the entire team or his line in particular?
"Both. Our line has been producing and we need that to continue".
Vanek has been running with Roy for years and he knows where #9 is going to be on the ice at all times. Lately, Tyler Ennis has adapted well to life on the wall with 9 and 26, and Vanek likes what he sees from #63. With Stafford gone with his upper body deal, Ennis has become the secret ingredient on Buffalo's top line. Vanek has made the transition from student to teacher. He's no longer the young kid from U Minnesota with all of the promise. he's a grizzled veteran and he feels like its his job to help groom and mentor his young protege-wingman.
"Tyler is a young guy who can hold the puck and create plays very well. He's still learning that the NHL game is quicker, sometimes he holds onto it a little too much, but he's trying to learn and correct his game. I just keep trying to talk to him when we are on the bench as much as I can. I think he appreciates it. I tell him that its better to learn on the ice during the game than in practice. I like the way that we are gelling, hopefully we can keep playing well. I know Tyler's going to get better".
Whatever Vanek said to Ennis about the Sedins, its obvious that the kid had his ears on.
"That was the first time that i had ever played against the Sedins and man, they can really move the puck around. I think our line challenged them very well'.
Not so fast, Youngblood. I saw you guys whipping the biscuit around on your tap-in goal and Montador's point bomb.
" I think our line had a ton of chemistry.. we moved it well down low and made some plays defensively. We are all offensive guys and we are finally getting used to one another. This is a lot of fun. I think at times we don't work as hard as we should, me included. What we have all concentrated on is paying attention in our end and its leading to chances at the other end".
I asked Vanek if he sees some of himself in his young gun linemate, Ennis.
"Yes, I do".
Spoken like a true Papa. One day, an older vintage of Vanek will be driving his boys to the local rinks at 5:30 am and will likely be telling them about the young man who he helped to groom into an NHL star.
Thomas Vanek is giving back to his young teammates the very same thing that Chris Drury and Mike Grier had given to him earlier in his career:
The virtues of patience and perspective.
****
One door closes, another one opens.
In the NHL, as in life, one man's loss is another man's gain.
Nathan Gerbe will make his return to the Buffalo lineup in Washington on Wednesday night. Pat Kaleta will miss the game with an upper body deal that he suffered against the Vancouver Canucks.
*****
The Sabres are 4-0-1 in their past five games?
Is it a coinkydink that Craig Rivet has been seated on press row?
The captain's absence has not disrupted the Sabres at all, in fact, they are a better team defensively and offensively without him in the lineup.
The D corps are generating more chances and points in the past two weeks as well.
I love the Leopold-Montador pairing. They were +3 apiece on Monday night. Myers and Morrissson are playing well, as are Reggie and Butler.
With Washington, LA, and, Tampa on the dance card this week, don't expect any changes by Lindy.
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