Comeback kids Larsson and Eichel lead Sabres

The wind has picked up on the shores of Lake Erie recently, and there is some speculation that the breeze is just Sabres’ fans breathing a collective sigh of relief. With only eight games left in the 2015-16 campaign, the team’s wobbly season of youthful struggles is finally nearing an end.

There are those who are frustrated with the Sabres because they will again be missing the playoffs, but those lofty expectations were somewhat unrealistic for a team that was loaded with unfamiliar faces as the first puck dropped on the season. Not only were many of the team’s stars new, rookies Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart played top-line minutes, experiencing the pressure of the NHL at 19 and 20 years old, respectively. Ultimately, these kids have both had great seasons – especially in thier first seasons, as both find themselves on the top five list for rookie goal scoring.

Despite the disappointment of missing the playoffs, the Sabres’ improvement over their last two seasons is measurable. The team’s 71 points are already better than the 51 the previous season. Buffalo has scored 15 more goals this year, but far more impressive, they have allowed 74 fewer. This number will change over the course of the remaining games, but clearly, the fresh-faced Sabres are far better defensively than they were during ‘the tank.’

Their youth, their injury issues, their new line-up – all of these could be excuses for a team trailing off in the home stretch, but Buffalo has been climbing through the standings, slowly and steadily, and trail Arizona by only one point for 23rd overall. These same excuses could easily apply to a team that finds itself down late. It would be very easy for the Sabres to write off close losses, putting all of the blame on their inexperience.

As cliched as it may be, there is no quit in this team. In a recent game against Carolina (a team in the heat of a playoff race,) second-year defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen made a mistake at the blue line, allowing Canes forward Joakim Nordstrom to get through alone on goaltender Chad Johnson. Nordstrom buried the shot, giving Carolina a 2-1 lead with just under six and a half minutes left in the game.

The Sabres, who had just failed on a four-minute power play, did not allow the Hurricanes to retain any of the momentum the lead should have given them. Evander Kane and Johan Larsson scored exactly a minute apart, and gave the Sabres took the lead with less than three minutes remaining.

Larsson's career-high 7th of the season. pic.twitter.com/EcrB8iEde6

— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) March 23, 2016

This storyline is familiar for Buffalo. A few weeks ago, the Sabres pulled out a shootout win over Toronto after being down by two in the third. It was Eichel and Kane who scored the two late goals to send the game to overtime. In early February, Buffalo found themselves down against Montreal, and came back to win in regulation. Larsson was again the hero, scoring the game winning goal with less than 10 minutes to go in the game.

The emergence of Larsson as a clutch player has come as a surprise to many. This has been his first full season with the big club, and though he started slowly, he is now tied with Eichel in game-winning goals for the team, with both players scoring four each. The Sabres are ninth in the league in third period scoring, with 74 of their goals coming in the final frame – nearly double their first period production (41.) Of course, playing with a lead is nice – it would be good to see these stats reversed, but there is certainly something to be said for a team that can finish strong.

As the season winds down, the team is measuring the small victories. Obviously, Eichel and Reinhart’s fantastic rookie seasons are a win. O’Reilly’s emergence as a team leader is another. Buffalo’s strong secondary goaltending is a third. The overall ability of the team to seek another level in the third period and find ways to scratch out victories will be important heading into the next season, where expectations will be reasonably higher. Thankfully, it is the team’s younger stars that seem to have that extra gear, which is a promising sign of the things to come.

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