Game 71: Doing the job right

A Sabres 7-3 laugher against the Pittsburgh Penguins saw a lot of things that were problems earlier in the season show to no longer be issues once again.

BUFFALO — Normally, Buffalo Sabres games against the Pittsburgh Penguins tend to be a problem for the team from Western New York. The Pens have had their number repeatedly over the years and the Sabres have been, well, just generally not good.

The two previous matchups against Pittsburgh this season featured a couple of problems that plagued the Sabres all season long.

When they faced off in October in Pittsburgh, the Sabres both blew a 3-1 first period lead with a poor showing in the second period that came after they chased that night’s starter Tristan Jarry from the game in the first only to get shutdown by that night’s backup Joel Blomqvist and lost 6-5 in overtime when Sidney Crosby scored a power play goal in overtime. Evgeni Malkin even scored his 500th goal that night to add a slice of history.

Their matchup in January in Buffalo had the Sabres end the first period with a 1-0 lead only to give up three goals in the second and then allowed an empty-net goal to that night’s Penguins starter Alex Nedeljkovic who came away with a boatload of saves and a two-point game, the first goalie to ever have a goal and an assist in a game in NHL history as the Pens cruised to a 5-2 win and an absolutely unforgettable but still forgettable game.

Thursday night’s game was the Sabres answer to both of those losses. Buffalo had a 2-1 lead after the first period and the Penguins lone goal came off the stick of Crosby, a goal that secured his own place in history by clinching he’d have a point per-game season for the 20th time, a mark that helped him surpass Wayne Gretzky for the most point per-game seasons all-time.

“He's in such a rare company where he is right now with every milestone that that he crosses,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “It just puts him in more elite company than he's already in. So I just think when you think in terms of 20 seasons in a row with such consistency, it's an amazing accomplishment.”

Crosby scoring to cut the lead in half would usually be a sign that things were about to get very dicey for the Sabres, but these Penguins are not at all like those of, uh, earlier this season, I guess…? Certainly not from the past 20 years anyway because the second period didn’t see the Sabres collapse in on themselves.

Buffalo scored five times and chased starter Jarry from the game after he gave up the first two, four overall, to be replaced by Nedeljkovic. The goalie change didn’t work for the Penguins, however, as Nedeljkovic allowed three goals to close out the game and the Sabres cruised to a 7-3 win.

“For us the second period was a little easier just with the momentum we had,” Tage Thompson said. “I think we were feeling pretty good about our game and had something that was working. Just pushing, our forwards were getting out of our zone and into the neutral zone and our D were sending it up and we were getting a lot of odd-man rushes, catching their forwards just kind of in no-man’s land. Stuck to that and I think speed is an identity for us and I think tonight we really stuck to playing north and fast the entire night.”

More from a game where everything worked right for the Sabres and nothing at all went correctly for the Penguins ahead…