Game 74: Crabs in a bucket

After a 2-0 first period deficit threatened to make Friday night look like Wednesday night, the Buffalo Sabres found the missing gear in a 5-2 win over New Jersey.

Tage Thompson skating at Sabres practice in December 2023 (Photo: Joe Yerdon)

BUFFALO — Given how fantastically ugly the Buffalo Sabres 6-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators was on Wednesday, seeing the New Jersey Devils open up a 2-0 lead in the first period off of goals that went in off of Sabres players, it was a fascinating moment to see just how they would respond.

After all, Wednesday’s game melted down in rapid fashion and despite some efforts, they were unable to put a tourniquet in place to stop the bleeding.

But the Sabres were able to prevent New Jersey from padding the lead in the first and after a goal from Tage Thompson 28 seconds into the second period, the tenor changed from that point on. Thompson completed a natural hat trick and capped it off with the Sabres’ second empty net goal in the third period to finish off a four-goal game to lead them to a 5-2 win.

It was a game New Jersey had to have to continue their climb towards the wild card race they had suddenly become part of. Instead, the Sabres gave them a taste of what it feels like to come up very short in a need-to-win game. Like crabs in a bucket, Buffalo brought New Jersey back into the pile of playoff wannabes.

“If you look at the season as a whole, there’s a lot of games or situations where things didn’t seem to go our way as a group or individuals and, obviously, (Wednesday) night didn’t go the way we wanted and wasn’t a good enough effort especially at the time of the year we’re at right now,” Thompson said. “I thought, (we) kind of get off to a similar start down two, it would have been easy to kind of just fold the tent and pack in and I thought we responded the right way. I think that says a lot about the character in the room and the guys we’ve got here.”

More on an impressive Sabres win Friday night ahead…