It can be easy, as a sports fan and a blogger, to focus on the times players and teams screw up. Easy, and satisfying too. And hilarious. Oh man, when a guy really biffs it? Has a total brain-fart and all you can do is laugh and say What the fuck were you thinking? I live for that shit. If they could bottle LeBron yelling at J.R. Smith I would develop a drinking problem.
I have lost my train of thought. Let me start over. It can be easy to focus on the poor choices made in sports, because they're aberrations. But it's worth noting the good decisions too—the unsexy choices that won't generally make highlight reels but do increase a team's chances. We had one such example in Thursday's Blues-Sabres game, tied in the final minute of regulation when St. Louis interfered with Buffalo goalie Devon Levi.
With the delayed penalty, the Sabres had a choice and little time to make it. They could pull Levi and try to score at 6-on-5, and when the Blues gained possession go on the normal, 5-on-4 power play. Or they could waste time—skate around and kill the clock until the end of regulation, and let the power play start in OT as a 4-on-3, since the odds of scoring at 4-on-3 are higher than with the other man-advantage variants.
The Sabres did just that: immediately began cycling the puck in their own zone, ticking off the seconds in regulation. It took good coaching to be ready for this possibility, and good execution by the players. (And good luck that St. Louis, in the other conference and not in direct standings competition, was happy to not pressure and take the OT point.)
THE SABRES STRATEGICALLY DELAY THEIR POWER PLAY INTO OT AND COME UP WITH THE W 🔥 pic.twitter.com/DUMZMWlSU0
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) November 15, 2024
The Sabres were rewarded for their shrewdness, Rasmus Dahlin burying a one-timer from JJ Peterka 1:33 into the extra frame, after the power play would have expired had it not been delayed.
It was a nice, determined little win for Buffalo, which was without Tage Thompson and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, and had to overcome a third-period game-tying goal being waved off for goalie interference. The Sabres are a .500 team who figure to be around the fringe of the playoff picture come springtime; every point matters. They certainly earned this pair.
