3 – Tage Thompson
Like Tuch, Tage Thompson didn’t get hot until this week when he scored two goals and three points against the Ottawa Senators and an epic goal against the New Jersey Devils. Tage also had an assist this afternoon on Rasmus Dahlin’s game-sealing goal, giving him five points for the week.
Slow starts seem to be the norm for Tage, as the same thing happened to him last season. But before he suffered an injury late in the year, he was an offensive machine, and it should surprise no one if we saw the same thing happen as 2023-24 wears on.
Overall, the Buffalo Sabres are starting to resemble the team they were last year, but with better defense. Through nine games, they have 27 goals for (15 this week) and 27 allowed, averaging to three per game, but a big reason for those goals this past week came from Tage and Tuch, while Luukkonen made sure “Hockey Halloween” was a success in those remarkable Goatheads.
(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)