Sabres, minus Eichel, open season with 5-1 rout of Canadiens
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) â At 40 and opening his 19th NHL season, Sabres goalie Craig Anderson has been around long enough to realize itâs not about what star players a team might be missing, or how inexperienced the roster.
âI think first and foremost, it's not what you donât have, itâs what you do have, and that starts with our leadership,â Anderson said, following a 30-save outing in Buffaloâs stunning 5-1 season-opening win over the injury-depleted Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night.
âWe are a team that's young, can skate fast and is going to make mistakes, but theyâre going to do it out of passion,â he added. âI think weâve got a little bit of naiveness right now, too, where weâre just going out there and playing what weâre told to do.â
For one game, the Sabres put aside a tumultuous offseason, by overcoming questions of lacking offense and with deposed captain Jack Eichelâs future in Buffalo uncertain. Eichel was stripped of his captaincy last month and remains on injured reserve over a dispute with the team over how to treat a herniated disk which has sidelined him since March.
Assistant captains Kyle Okposo and Zemgus Girgensons stepped up by scoring Buffaloâs first two goals. And Victor Olofsson and Anders Bjork blew the game wide open by scoring 2:01 apart in the second period.
âThe work we put in in camp is what carried over to this game. Thatâs our identity and we got to work hard,â said Girgensons, who missed all of last season with a hamstring injury. âI donât think it wouldâve mattered who scored the first two goals.â
The Sabres converted three of six power-play opportunities, with Tage Thompson pushing Buffaloâs lead to 5-1 early in the third period.
While Buffalo looked nothing like the team that finished last in the NHL standings for the fourth time in eight seasons last year, the Canadiens didnât come close to resembling the team that reached the Stanley Cup Final, before losing in five games to Tampa Bay in July.
Montreal was coming off a 2-1 season-opening loss at Toronto on Wednesday, and opened a season 0-2 for the first time since 2000.
Chris Wideman scored and Sam Montembeault stopped 31 shots in his Canadiensâ debut after being acquired off waivers from Florida two weeks ago.
âWe understand the reason we have success and what we have to put in to get the results. We didnât do that tonight. They deserved to win, they got the result that they deserved,â Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher said. âYou donât want to put yourself in a hole. So obviously to start 0-and-2, thereâs a lot of urgency on the next one.â
The Canadiens have eight players on IR, including captain Shea Weber and goalie Carey Price, who last week entered the NHL/NHL Playersâ Association joint player assistance program.
The fallout from the Sabresâ offseason player purge, Eichelâs dispute and 10-season playoff drought was evident with the NHL announcing â not the Sabres â- a crowd of 8,467 scattered around an arena with a 19,200 capacity. One fan showed up early wearing a paper bag over his head and an Eichel jersey.
The Sabres rewarded those who did attend by showing no signs of wilting after Wideman tapped in Joel Armiaâs pass midway through the second period.
Olofsson scored shortly after a two-man advantage ended by snapping a shot from the right circle with 2:55 remaining in the second period.
Girgensons then played a key role on Bjorkâs goal. After blocking a shot in Buffaloâs end, Girgensons led a three-on-two break before having his initial shot stopped, with Bjork converting the rebound to the right of the net.
Whatever the attendance, Okposo welcomed the fans who showed up after the Sabres spent all but a few home games last season playing in an empty arena due to COVID-19 restrictions.
âObviously not to full capacity, but the energy in there, like the chants in the third and the wave, they had the wave going,â Okposo said. âIt meant a lot. I was fired up when I scored.â
Sabres coach Don Granato had no update on center Casey Mittelstadt, who did not return after sustaining an upper body injury midway through the second period.
LONG WAIT
Itâs been 623 days since the Atlantic Division rivals last met on Jan. 30, 2020, in Buffalo, where the Canadiens beat the Sabres 3-1.
The Sabres were in Montreal preparing to face the Canadiens on March 10, 2020, when the NHL paused its season because of the coronavirus pandemic. The season was canceled two months later, with Montreal clinching the Eastern Conferenceâs 12th and final playoff berth .007 percentage points ahead of Buffalo.
REMEMBERING
Before the game, the Sabres aired a video paying tribute to Rene Robert, a member of the teamâs famed 1970s-era French Connection line, who died following a heart attack in June. Robertâs No. 14 was also imprinted on the ice behind both goals.
The team also honored former players Tom Kurvers and Fred Stanfield, who also died this summer.
UP NEXT
Canadiens: Return to Montreal for home opener against the New York Rangers on Saturday.
Sabres: Continue season-opening four-game homestand facing Arizona Coyotes on Saturday.
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