These are the days that Buffalo Sabres fans have been waiting for since the blockbuster trade with Winnipeg went down 10 months ago.
Buffalo Sabres fans are thanking Winnipeg Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff for making the the Evander Kane-Zach Bogosian-Jason Kasdorf for Tyler Myers-Drew Stafford-Brendan Lemieux-Joel Armia trade.
Both former Winnipeg Jets were hobbled by injuries earlier this season. The Sabres struggled when the power forward and thundering D-man were out of the lineup.
Kane missed 10 games in November die to an MCL injury.
Bogosian missed the first 17 games of the season for the Sabres,
Now that they are both healthy, they have been key cogs for the Sabres.
On Tuesday night in Detroit, Kane and Bogosian led the way on the score sheet in Detroit.
The Wings jumped out to a 2-0 lead before Kane pushed back for Buffalo.
Kane scored his third and fourth goals of the season. Bogosian scored his first goal of the new season.
Kane's first goal was huge for the Sabres. Kane torched Petr Mrazek high cheese to cut Detroit's two goal lead in half.
Zemgus Girgensons scored on the power play to cut the Detroit lead to 3-2.
Kane's second goal of the game at the 58 second mark on the third period was a power play tally that tied the game at 3-3.
It was Kane's first two-goal game of the season and the 17th of his career.
Bogosian scored at the 3:22 mark of the third period to give the Sabres the 4-3 lead.
Justin Abdelkader scored at the 13:31 mark of the third period.
Buffalo had a 4 on 3 PP in OT when Kane was hauled down while driving to Mrazek's blue ice. Evander Kane would ring a shot off the goal post.
On to the shootout they went where Brad Richards scored the only goal which dropped Buffalo to 2-0-1 in its last three games. I'd call that a successful stretch of games. Buffalo banked five of a possible six points in the past three games after going winless in six games (0-4-2).
The Sabres were 0-6-1 in their previous seven visits to Detroit and 1-8-1 in the prior 10.
Rasmus Ristolainen delivered an outstanding four assist performance in Detroit.
Thomas Vanek scored four point against Toronto on 12/16/11.
The last Sabres D-man to record 4 assists in a game was Toni Lydman on 2/27/08 against the Nashville Predators.
Ristolainen's four assists make him the first Buffalo Sabre to record four points in a game since Thomas Vanek on 12/11/11 versus Toronto.
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Ryan O'Reilly won 18-of-26 draws (69%).
He was 4-of-6 vs. Datsyuk and 7-of-10 vs. Zetterberg
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The Sabres now return home to play Arizona on Friday night.
Then, its back out to the road where they will fave the Connor McDavid-less Oilers on Saturday night,