Sabres Thrive When the Hitting Starts

This is going to be one of those posts that to any seasoned hockey fan will seem as obvious as this report will seem to any dog owner. Yes, Virginia, you're dog has a rich and complex emotional life, it's just that of your average three-year old. Well, by the same token, hitting wins hockey games. The more a team gets involved physically while still playing a disciplined overall game, the greater chance it has at winning any particular game, no matter what the disparity in record.

The knock in recent years on the Buffalo Sabres has been that they're soft. If you hit them, they will fold. And, for the most part, that sentiment has been correct. The departure of fundamentally chippy guys like Mike Grier and J.P. Dumont removed from their lineup veteran guys who knew (and more importantly) wanted to retaliate to any rough stuff. Grier and Dumont made their linemates play bigger and created space for them.

Beginning with the Tampa game last Saturday I started to see a change come over the Sabres. There were three fights in that game by guys not named Andrew Peters, that in itself was a rarity. Gaustad, Mair and (of all people) Jochen Hecht got into scraps that ended with decisive punches being thrown by the guys in the blue and gold. While they were substantially out-hit in that game 25-12, it was after the Hecht fight that they woke up and forechecked harder, trading goals and scoring the game winner in the 3rd period, which the dominated technically and territorially until a late surge by Tampa to tie the game fell short.

In Pittsburgh, even though the game did not have a single fight the Sabres out-hit the Penguins 32-20, normally three or four games worth of hits in one pretty hard-fought game. As a group the Sabres are a relatively calm, quiet bunch. Guys like Hecht, Lydman, Kotalik, and Pominville are all tough competitors but they are hard to rouse to expressing their anger in the form of board-rattling hits. The difference between playing solid, mistake-free, by-the-system hockey and winning hockey is the difference between taking that one extra step to finish your check and skate hard back into the play.
Hecht, in particular, commented recently that he didn't like the way he was playing, saying that he was 'too quick to get rid of the puck.' Another way of putting that is he was playing skittish. No sooner does he say those things to Paul Hamilton in the locker room then he goes out and accepts the challenge from Lecavalier to a fight at center ice. That fight meant a lot to that team. We may look back on it as the turning point to the season.

It was widely reported on Thursday that Gaustad's takedown of Ryan Craig was what sparked the team to rally from 2 goals down on home ice the night previous. Goose is one of those guys that has to play edgy every night, along with Adam Mair for the Sabres to be successful.


Winners of 4 of their last 5, and solidly in the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference, the Sabres only black mark this week came against the cross-bridge rival Maple Leafs where they skated the second-half of a game they should have been winning 4-1 like they were actually winning it. The problem was, they lost 2-1. From the post-game comments it seems that some in that room still don't get the problem.


No, Drew, you didn't. The Leafs started taking the body and the Sabres responded by trying to play shinny. We all know how that works out in the NHL. Then again, maybe that's just Stafford's idea of coach-speak, because last night against the Devils, he played his hardest game of the year, skating and battling hard for the puck. This time it took Bobby Holik and David Clarkson getting them running around chasing them and not playing smart, which caused the Devils 2nd goal, that woke them up and skating harder. It was almost like the light bulb went off and they decided that of all people, Bobby Holik was not going to beat them. The next shift they established a fore-check, got the Devils running around and scored quickly on the power play. It was a mirror image of the game vs. the Leafs the night before.

Adam Mair's scrap with Jay Leach right after they tied the game up didn't hurt their chances either.

Lindy Ruff has been harping to the press all week that they haven't proven anything, that they have to stay uncomfortable and unsatisfied with each game, regardless of the final score. If this group has a weakness, it isn't being soft physically, it's believing that they can win without working in the toughest hockey league there is.

Ta,