Rasmus Ristolainen Leads Buffalo Sabres To Victory

The Buffalo Sabres faced a much lighter week this past seven days, with just two games between Monday, November 2nd and Sunday, November 8th. The Buffalo Sabres went 1-1 last week and now prepare for a slightly busier week ahead, as they travel to Florida for a pair of games before hosting the San Jose Sharks to close out the week.

The Buffalo Sabres were off Monday, Tuesday AND Wednesday, preparing to host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday. It’s not clear if it was the time off that did them in, or what, but the Sabres fell to the Lightning by a score of 4-1 in a game in which they allowed three ugly goals in the first period alone.

Steven Stamkos, Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov – arguably three of Tampa’s most dangerous players – all scored on Linus Ullmark in the opening frame. Chad Johnson came in to relieve him and helped out the Buffalo Sabres, but it wasn’t enough to pull off a win. They were simply too far behind, too quickly.

Jack Eichel had the lone goal for the Buffalo Sabres, a pretty nice one — but again, not enough. Victor Hedman added an empty-netter, and the Lightning walked off with the win.

Following that loss, the Buffalo Sabres hosted the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday afternoon in the long-anticipated return of Ryan Miller to the 716.

The Sabres won 3-2, thanks in large part to a pair of goals from defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen. Jamie McGinn also scored for Buffalo, while Henrik Sedin and Chris Higgins tallied for the Canucks. Ristolainen’s goals included the game-winner with just 17 seconds remaining in regulation.

And that’s all she wrote for this week for the Buffalo Sabres. So — who were your top performers?

3. Linus Ullmark

Okay, hear me out on this one. Ullmark had a rough start on Thursday, allowing three goals on 11 shots in the first twenty minutes for the Buffalo Sabres.

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While that’s not exactly worth of stardom, it’s important to remember that he’s still relatively inexperienced at the NHL level. It was only his fourth NHL game, and while he was great in the two wins prior, he’s going to make mistakes. He’s going to let some sloppy goals in. He’s going to make some moves that maybe aren’t the best. And that’s okay.

Ullmark showed that he can rebound from such a game, and that’s perhaps one of the most important things for the still-young Buffalo Sabres netminder.

He was yanked after 20 on Thursday, but was given the chance to start again on Saturday against the Canucks — and he ran with it. Thirty-five saves on 37 shots faced is pretty darn good, and he’s now 3-2-0 in the NHL with a .918 save percentage and 2.56 GAA. That capability to bounce back is what’s led me to give him a weekly star spot.

2. Jack Eichel

Eichel scored the lone goal for the Buffalo Sabres in Thursday’s loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, and like many of his other goals so far this season, it was a beautiful one, slipping through defenders and potting one in. He also had a team-high six shots on goal, most of any skater on the Sabres or the Lightning that night. In total, that means he accounted for nearly 1/5th of the Sabres’ overall shots.

Eichel followed that up with a two-point performance on Saturday: his first pair of NHL assists.

Though he registered just one shot on goal in the 3-2 win over the Canucks, those assists mean…. a great deal. The value of a player to be able to assist others, not just do it all on his own, is critical, and if Eichel can reach that realization now, he’ll be fantastic. He now has seven points on the season, all at home.

1. Rasmus Ristolainen

I have to give this week’s first star to Rasmus Ristolainen, without whom the result of Saturday’s game could have been very different.

The Sabres were only 17 seconds away from heading to overtime with the Canucks, but Risto’s goal (see video above) changed all that. Though it wouldn’t have been the end of the world if Vancouver walked away with a point, who knows what would’ve happened if they went to OT or a shootout?

Next: Ristolainen Emerging Among Sabres D

That was also Ristolainen’s second goal of the night. He played over 21 minutes in each of last week’s games, and although he finished overall a minus-3 (which is probably not so great), he also finished with four hits and two blocked shots — plus that great game-winner against Ryan Miller.

Who will be the top guys this week as the Sabres face Tampa Bay, Florida and San Jose?