Defense is the key to getting the offense going.
By Chris Ryndak / Sabres.com
Buffalo will take advantage of one more practice day before heading out to Arizona later today. The Sabres have not had a game since Saturday so they should be well rested heading into tomorrow night’s tilt against the Coyotes.
Here’s what you need to know.
The Sabres are looking to use these practice days to fine-tune their habits, improve communication, and do things the right way. Sabres coach Phil Housley is drawing on the recent success of Sean McDermott’s Buffalo Bills, who are 5-2 halfway through the NFL season.
“What is the one thing that they’ve talked about [with] the Buffalo Bills?” Housley said. “It’s their defense, right? That’s what’s changing things for them, it’s creating turnovers and that’s the point I’m getting at.
“We have to take pride in that area. The games that we lose, the other team has more zone time … We have to take pride when we don’t have the puck. The harder we work in that area, it’ll just seem like we have the puck more.”
Housley thought the Sabres did “everything but win” against the Sharks on Saturday. The two teams seemed evenly matched until the Sharks finally found a way to win late in the third period, with Logan Couture capitalizing on a mistake by the Sabres in their own zone with a top-shelf goal.
Coincidentally, it’s in this area that another comparison could be drawn to the team in Orchard Park. The Bills have simply found ways to win tight games as of late, be it Tre’Davious White’s fumble recovery against Tampa Bay or LaSean McCoy’s clock-eating drive against the Raiders.
Jason Pominville said he’s talked to teammates about his time with the Minnesota Wild last season, when the team won a franchise-best 12 games in a row, and described it in a similar light.
“It’s not because we were playing well, but we found ways to win no matter what,” Pominville said. “Some nights we weren’t at our best, we would get a bounce and find a way to win. Right now, when things aren’t going our way, it seems to go the opposite. A breakdown happens and they end up scoring.”
Pominville said that the confidence the Wild had during that streak stemmed from the team’s practice habits.
“Everyone who’s been on good teams will tell you that usually practice habits translate to games,” he said. “We had good habits. We were finding ways to win, no matter what. It’s weird the way it happens. You’re down, you find a way to get back. You get a bounce or your goalie makes a save. A lot of thing happen that you find ways to win games.
“But if you had asked our coaches after the streak, they even told us that there were some games that we should’ve lost and we found ways to win.”
*NOTES — The Sabres announced on Wednesday that the team recalled forward Nicholas Baptiste from the Rochester Americans. Baptiste (22, 6-foot-1, 205 lbs.) joins the Sabres for his first recall of the season after recording 4 points (3+1) in 14 games for the Sabres in his first NHL season in 2016-17. Through 8 games with the Americans, Baptiste is tied for the team lead with 3 goals and tied for third among all Amerks with 5 points. A native of Ottawa, Ontario, Baptiste has totaled 74 points (41+33) in 129 AHL games since the beginning of the 2015-16 season.