Buffalo Sabres prove their lower lines can score too
By Sion Fawkes
The Buffalo Sabres are one of the NHL’s best teams when it comes to scoring. And against Detroit, their high-scoring ways extended to the lower lines.
So much for fearing the Buffalo Sabres wouldn’t pick up where they left off following a 10 day break where they saw little if any practice time. When the Blue and Gold took the ice for the first time in a week-and-a-half, many were pessimistic, while I personally felt the rest time could play to their benefit.
By the end of the second period, it was official. The Sabres, up 5-0 after logging 25 shots on goal, didn’t miss a beat. You would have thought this team was practicing together all along, raring to return to an in-game situation.
What’s interesting is, Buffalo’s top line scored just one goal in the first two frames. Casey Mittelstadt scored a near power play goal in the first, before he sunk one on the man advantage in the second.
Then the Captain, Kyle Okposo, found twine multiple times to give the Sabres a 5-0 lead. While clinging to a 5-3 lead in the third period, Okposo hit on an empty-net goal to give the Blue and Gold a 6-3 lead, putting the game out of reach.
Buffalo Sabres show anyone on this team can score
While Mittelstadt and Okposo won’t enjoy many games like this, it is refreshing to see the lower lines pitching in, and that this group isn’t overly-reliant on the Tage Thompson Line or the Kid Line. Instead, the Sabres are starting to forewarn the rest of the NHL that the league must account for the lower lines. If not, the Blue and Gold will make their opponents pay.
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And what was even better is the fact that it wasn’t just Mittelstadt and Okposo making the respective plays here. They were just finishing them. Mittelstadt had great positioning on both of his goals while Peyton Krebs and Tyson Jost’s forechecking helped account for both of Okposo’s goals.
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