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"Following the Buffalo Sabres' shootout loss to the Detroit Red Wings, Evander Kane received a text from his dad.
The message: You’re finally starting to look like yourself."
- homiedclown
After the Buffalo Sabres' shootout loss to the Detroit Red Wings, Evander Kane received a text from his dad.
The message: You’re finally starting to look like yourself.
“He’s probably right,” Kane said.
Kane had two goals against Detroit and got involved in a battle with Henrik Zetterberg that escalated into a scrap with Justin Abdelkader and Brendan Smith. He used his speed in overtime to take the puck the length of the ice before drawing a penalty, and he nearly ended the game on the ensuing power play, stopped only by the post.
It was just about total domination and could have marked his true arrival to the Sabres. Coming off a knee injury that sidelined him earlier this season, he looked completely healthy and ready to repay the faith shown by Sabres GM Tim Murray, who sent a huge package to the Winnipeg Jets to acquire him last season.
“You’ve seen his speed, skating when he’s been in our lineup almost immediately,” coach Dan Bylsma said. “Today, you saw it; it was dominant.”
It was a loss, but this one game captured why the Sabres' rebuild is moving at a fast pace after last season’s bottoming out. If Kane is the player Murray expects, that’s a game-changer.
But it’s not just him. If you haven’t checked in on what’s happening in Buffalo this season, here are a few more things you might not realize about this season’s Sabres:
1. Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen is really good
Maybe you already knew this. Maybe you saw his play start to take off near the end of last season and realized that the No. 8 overall pick in 2013 was on the verge of potential stardom. As one scout pointed out on Tuesday, the Sabres' disaster of a season in 2014-15 hid the fact that they had some excellent young players coming.
Ristolainen is the best example of that. He had three assists on Tuesday night, giving him three points in a game for just the second time in his career. Bylsma uses him everywhere, with his ice time nearly four minutes more this season than last, at 24:15.
“We’re asking a lot of him and what he does for us. He’s playing against other teams' best players night in and night out in every situation. He’s been pretty dynamic for us,” Bylsma said.
Typically it takes a few years for the game to slow down for a young defenseman, but that appears to be happening right now for Ristolainen. He’s skating with Josh Gorges, and Gorges is seeing a calm and poise in Ristolainen’s game that defies his NHL inexperience. The gold standard for NHL defenseman development is 300 games. Ristolainen is at 137 and has impressed Gorges with that poise.
“[It’s] composure, not just with the puck,” Gorges said when we chatted on Tuesday. “It’s positioning without the puck. The way he moves his stick, the little details of his game that allow him to do the bigger-picture things. You see him, when he goes back for a puck, he’s not just going to throw it away. He’s calm, cool, collected; he takes the time to find the right guy. His ability to skate -- that makes him dangerous out there.”
2. Assistant coach Terry Murray deserves some of the credit too
Bylsma has transformed a team that controlled just 37.5 percent of the shot attempts last season to one that is now at 48.6 percent. It’s going to get better too, as the players mature and GM Murray fills out the roster.
But Bylsma has had help.
Los Angeles Kings players still talk about the importance Terry Murray had in laying the foundation for their understanding of the game. Drew Doughty mentioned it again in a conversation a couple of weeks ago. Gorges said Murray has been instrumental in providing the structure that allows young players like Ristolainen to make decisions at a fast pace.
“It’s really about the details of the game,” Gorges said. “We’ve really hammered home this year where you should be in every situation. ‘When the puck goes here, where’s your next move, your next position?’ Supporting the play, supporting your partner -- for D-men, the game is too fast, things happen way too quick to get the puck, take a look and then think. You don’t have that luxury to know where your next play is. To have that communication factor is what [Murray] has really harped on, and it has been a big help to us this year.”
3. Kane is better-suited playing with Ryan O'Reilly than Jack Eichel
When Eichel was drafted, it was easy to pencil him right into the Sabres' lineup centering a line that would include Kane on the wing. It was perfect. There would be so much speed in that duo, plus Kane plays with an edge that would help protect the young center.
As it turns out, the duo of Kane and O’Reilly is a better one for the Sabres. According to hockeyanalysis.com, when Kane and O’Reilly are on the ice together at even strength, the Sabres control 58.7 percent of the shot attempts. When Kane is with Eichel, that number drops to 50.0 percent.
Kane mentioned O’Reilly’s passing as one of the main reasons the two have clicked so far this season.
“He’s a guy that has some real good vision on the ice and can pass the puck really well on his backhand, on the rush, that can really help,” Kane said. “Especially being a left winger, I’m on his backhand side, so him being able to use both his forehand and his backhand as a winger, that’s a good attribute to have as a centerman. He’s able to make those little plays, has a good stick, creates turnovers. For me, that works well because I can get open and he can get me the puck.”
4. Sam Reinhart is the Sabres' most improved player. It might not be close
We’ll let Bylsma explain: “Sam, last year, and I only watched it on video -- it was a physical and speed issue in the game. Even to start this year, where he’s come from and where he’s improved since Sept. 1 in his skating is significant. And his shot was -- nobody is going to tell you it was anything but not good when he started the season. He’s worked diligently, hard. He’s got a good shot right now. It’s improved so much. It’s hard to believe how much it has improved and the pace in which he’s played has improved so much that, the season could end four months from now and Sam not having improved any more and he’d [still] be the most improved player on our team.”
