The Buffalo Sabres once again found themselves in a multi-goal hole early, down 2-0 to the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday after being down 3-1 on Thursday against the Columbus Blue Jackets. However, unlike the season opener, the Sabres were able to turn things around to win 4-3 on the night they raised their division banner from last season.
It was a collective team effort on Saturday against the Blackhawks but these were three players in particular who stood out for their performance for the Sabres.
Jiri Kulich
The player of the game for the Sabres was Jiri Kulich, not just for scoring the game-winning goal, but for what it meant. It was his first goal in almost an entire year after missing a majority of last season due to blood clots.
It looked like Kulich was going to get that goal slightly earlier when he had a great chance, but the shot would end up going wide. Fortunately, the Sabres held onto the puck, and Owen Power set him up and this time, Kulich did not miss.
While the goal was critical, Kulich also made his presence known elsewhere on the ice. One area the Sabres have struggled is on faceoffs, but Kulich was excellent on Saturday, winning seven of nine faceoffs. Kulich is not going to be able to score every night, but this is an area where he can have a big impact for this Sabres team.
Jack Quinn
Jack Quinn has had an incredible start to the season with a goal in each of the first two games, but he has had plenty of opportunities to have more than that. On Saturday against the Blackhawks, he led the team in individual scoring chances with seven, four more than the next player on the team, according to Natural Stat Trick.
The Sabres could use a consistent scoring threat to take some pressure off Tage Thompson, who had his first goal of the season against the Blackhawks, and if Quinn can be that, it adds another much-needed dynamic to this offense.
Olen Zellweger
The Buffalo Sabres blueline is going to be a work in progress, and that is to be expected given the training camp they had. It was a shortened camp, and they were without Mattias Samuelsson and Olen Zellweger for a good portion of it.
On Saturday, Zellweger made his Sabres' debut after missing the season opener while still in the concussion protocol. He finished the game with just over 15 minutes of ice time, playing alongside Owen Power for most of the night.
Zellweger skated well and looked fast with the puck and wasn't afraid to jump into the offensive zone with one shot against the Blackhawks. According to Natural Stat Trick, he finished with xGA of only .33, which was the fourth lowest on the Sabres.
There was plenty of good performances on Saturday, including Tage Thompson's goal and Louis Creiver recording his first point with the Sabres, but these are three performances that really stood out and helped the Sabres secure the win.
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