Game 15: Riding the waves

After a three-game losing streak that followed a three-game win streak, the Sabres once again have won three in a row after a 3-2 shootout win versus Calgary.

BUFFALO — There was a former Buffalo Sabres coach, maybe it was Don Granato or Phil Housley or maybe even Dan Bylsma, who said you want to avoid the extreme highs and lows going through the game-to-game schedule. It comes from wanting to stay at an even-keel and not allowing yourself to get too high on successes nor too low on losses during a long season.

And yet, here we are with the Sabres winners of three in a row yet again after a 3-2 shootout win against the Calgary Flames on Saturday afternoon. It’s their second three-game win streak of the season and the previous one came just before the three-game losing skid that preceded this current three-game upswing.

At the very least, riding these waves in the early part of the season can indicate they’re figuring things out and finding a groove. Based on their wins against Ottawa, the New York Rangers, and now Calgary that seems to be right.

Saturday’s win wasn’t completely pretty, but it had enough of the good as well as enough of the good-enough-to-make-up-for-the-bad to allow you to think that they might just have things figured out in a way that works well.

“I think that’s the most important thing right now, to find that level of game that we need to play,” Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen said. “Not every game is going to be perfect but kind of find a way to battle through those games that we don’t feel as comfortable as we want to or as good as we want to. As a good team, you need to push through those games too... You have to be able to trust your own game and the last three games we’ve been doing that.”

More from a win that tested the Sabres’ mettle ahead.