Jeff Skinner: Take a bow.
The former 40-goal scorer netted a hattrick-plus-one against the Montreal Canadiens for the first four-goal performance by a Buffalo Sabre since Jack Eichel in 2019. With an assist on Tage Thompson’s 15th goal of the year, it was also first five-point performance by a Sabre since 2018. Alex Tuch added three assists and the Sabres cruised to a 5-3 victory.
Skinner got things going early (and often) for the away team as he scored the game’s opening goal on a deflection play from the point with a tip on Casey Fitzegerald’s shot. Head coach Don Granato’s decision to keep Fitzgerald in the lineup and scratch Mark Pysyk paid off early with Skinner’s 17th of season. One thing that may go unnoticed with Fitzgerald’s game is his decision making around his own net as he rarely over pursues players behind the net, and instead is content to let the opposition have the back of the net instead of chasing the play. Too often Sabres defensemen have a tendency to unnecessarily chase players back there instead of guarding the low slot where a majority of goals are scored.
Fitzgerald’s good day continued on the penalty kill as he drew an interference penalty against Brendan Gallagher which sapped any momentum that the Habs may have gleaned from a brief power play. The subsequent 4-on-4 period gave the Sabres a terrific scoring chance with Victor Olofsson getting a partial breakaway on Sam Montembeault.
Early on it didn’t appear that Montreal’s decision to fire Dominique Ducharme and bring in Hall-of-Fame player Martin St. Louis has made much of a difference in the way the Habs are playing. They look generally disorganized and gave up at least 5 high-danger scoring opportunities to the road team within a dozen minutes of the opening draw. Alex Tuch repeatedly victimized the Canadiens’ defensemen and was able to fly right down the middle of the ice with little-to-no opposition. He alone could have had 2-3 goals in the first period. Skinner, too, had multiple chances in prime real estate.
It's hard to tell if that’s a systematic failure or a problem with motivation, but it’s rare to see a team willingly give up the middle of the ice like Montreal does. Rob Ray pointed out on the telecast that Montreal went 9 minutes without a shot on net in the first period. It easily could have been 3-0 if not for some missed shots and nice saves by Montembeault.
That the Sabres only scored one goal in the first with all their chances bit them early in the second period as Mike Hoffman scored his 8th of the season only a minute into the frame. The last thing you want to do against a team like Montreal is give them any sense that they could win the game which is exactly what happened after that goal.
Some bad habits started emerging after that, especially from Rasmus Dahlin who had a particularly rough shift after the Montreal goal. Dahlin had a chance to pinch a puck off in the neutral zone and prevent Montreal from transitioning, but he saw a hit coming and elected not to make the play. Later on in the shift, he gave the puck away in the defensive zone which led to a quality chance against. He’s still struggling mightily with decision making in high-danger situations that don’t need to become the five-alarm fires that they sometimes do.
Dahlin would get some redemption shortly thereafter as he held the puck in at the offensive blue line and fed Jeff Skinner who walked in a wired a wrister top-shelf to beat Montembeault for the second goal of the game from Skinner. The positives and negatives from the former first-overall pick continue to seesaw, and depending which side you want to focus on more, he’s either a thrilling or infuriating player.
The second Montreal goal of the period was a bad break for goalie Craig Anderson who was powerless to stop a clapper from Jeff Petry that deflected off the skate of John Hayden. While Sabres coaches certainly wouldn’t want to discourage shot blocking, getting a little piece of the puck can sometimes be worse for your goalie than simply getting out of the way to let the net tender see the shot coming the whole way. The tough breaks would continue for the Sabres as a pass from behind their net deflected off the skate of Tage Thompson perfectly onto the stick of for Sabre Joel Armia who tucked the puck in high blocker on Craig Anderson.
Maybe Thompson used that as fuel to score his 15th goal of the season shortly after on the powerplay as he hammered home the tying goal into a yawning net. This is turning into a quite the scoring race between Thompson and Skinner who both have a realistic shot to hit 30 goals if that line continues to be hot.
The broadcast showed a great shot of Thompson, Tuch and Skinner in the third period as the top line talked to each other on the bench and worked over the previous shift. It’s good to see players talking over the game as it happens rather than sitting silently on the bench as we’ve often witnessed over this cursed decade of futility. That sort of communication is clearly paying dividends for Don Granato’s top line.
The third period was an even affair for the first 10 minutes as the two bottom-dwelling team traded some A- scoring chances without creating much in the way of tap-in opportunities. One would think that the Sabres would press a little harder to get the win in regulation considering that they are pretty abysmal in the 3-on-3 overtime format this season.
And indeed the Sabres did pressure for the go-ahead goal on one of the weirder hat trick goals you’ll ever see. Jeff Skinner was sprung on a breakaway by Alex Tuch and drove hard to the net for a scoring opportunity before being taken down on the play by the back checking Montreal defenseman. It looked like the referee was going to motion for the penalty shot before realizing that the puck had deflected off Skinner’s skate while being taken down and credited him with his third of the game and 19th of the season.
Craig Anderson shut the door late in the game on what looked to be a tap-in from Tyler Toffoli with a beautiful windmill glove save, which left the door open for Skinner to score his 4th of the game as an insurance goal. Alex Tuch found Skinner in front of the net and the former figure skater made no mistake as he roofed a backhand over Montembeault.
There would be no blowing that two-lead and the Sabres finished the game off 5-3. It has to feel good for Skinner to resurrect his career and prove he’s still a scoring threat after two brutal years under former coach Ralph Krueger.
Sabres fans hope his rediscovered scoring prowess will continue when there are meaningful games to play in the coming years.