After winning just four of their first 11 games, the defending Atlantic Division champion Buffalo Sabres have bounced back to win four of their last five, including an impressive 5-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday.
Now comes arguably the toughest portion of their schedule.
Buffalo hosts the defending Western Conference champion Vegas Golden Knights and old friend Jack Eichel on Sunday afternoon, followed by an Atlantic Division showdown with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Then the Sabres hit the road for 10 of their next 12 games starting with their longest road trip of the season, a six-gamer that includes stops in Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington, Florida and Tampa Bay.
That’s quite the challenge.
Still, right wing Josh Doan says the Sabres are looking forward to the challenge.
“It’s going to battle test us, and that’s something that we want at this time of year,” Doan told the Buffalo News. “You want to start to feel what it’s like to play these high-end teams again.
“We’ve talked about how hard it is going to be in the league to win hockey games just because of how deep it is. So, there’s no night it’s going to be easy but to see some of these teams come in, you’ve got to be ready.”
Vegas will be playing the finale of a four-game road trip. The Golden Knights have garnered five of a possible six points so far, losing only in a shootout at Boston, 3-2, to open the trip. Vegas followed that loss with one-goal wins at Pittsburgh and Detroit.
The Golden Knights come in off a 2-1 victory at Detroit on Thursday, rallying from a 1-0 deficit in the third period. Trevor Connelly scored the game-winning goal with 1:42 remaining with a wrist shot from the left circle into the top far corner. It marked the third straight game that the 20-year-old Connelly, the 19th overall pick of 2024 NHL Draft, scored a goal.
Connelly took a pass from Eichel at the blue line and then toe-dragged Michael Rasmussen inside the left circle before snapping a shot past the glove side of Daniil Tarasov for his seventh goal.
“As soon as I saw (Eichel) get some speed going I tried to match it,” Connelly said. “He’s such a threat off the rush, so I knew if I found some open ice he’d either find me or make a play of his own. The guy who was covering me kind of overcommitted, and I got off a lucky shot.”
Josh Norris scored two goals and Owen Power had three assists in Buffalo’s win over Columbus on Friday. Norris scored his first goal late in the first period to give Buffalo a 2-1 lead and the Sabres scored three times in the second period to build a 5-1 lead.
Norris entered the contest with a six-game goalless drought dating back to Oct. 17.
“I just tried to have an attack mindset,” Norris, who doubled his season goal total to four, said. “I was just focusing on today, staying in the moment, try to be better. I haven’t been good enough and I wanted to have a good game today, go out there and contribute and play hard. That’s all. Leave it all out there, and I thought I did that.”
Buffalo swept both games against Vegas last season and has won three in a row over the Golden Knights.