WGR

‘The Sabres’ struggles continued into the third period, as the Flames ran the score to 4-1 just four minutes in. On a broken play, Calgary found themselves with a 3-on-1 chance in front of Ullmark. Forwards Dillon Dube and Derek Ryan freed up some space in front with quick passes, and found an uncovered Milan Lucic in front of the Buffalo net. Lucic deposited his first goal of the year past Ullmark as Calgary continued to punish Buffalo for their sloppy play.’

‘The Sabres played for maybe 25 minutes at the most in this game and were lucky it was close. Trailing 4-1 late in the game, Buffalo woke up and charged the Calgary net. Jake McCabe and Jack Eichel scored 1:56 apart on David Rittich to make it look respectable.’

‘Fans are convinced that Skinner is furious that he’s not playing on a line with Jack Eichel and is sorry he re-signed in Buffalo. Skinner has 11 goals in 28 games and is on a 32-goal pace. He said with a laugh, “I don’t think I’m really upset. I just want to win games, and everyone here wants to win games, including the coach. He puts out the best lineup that he thinks is going to win the game and as a player, you go out and play and try to help the team win.’

‘”He looked good today,” he said. “Still haven’t gotten the feedback from the medical team, but it looked like he was moving quite naturally. I think the prep to get him here has been successful, and we expect that he will be available here on this trip.”‘

‘”The 11 forwards has been interesting too. It’s been difficult to match against us because we have a line with [Rasmus] Asplund and [Zemgus] Gigrensons that doesn’t have anybody injected in there. Jack will play with them, you’ll have [Jeff Skinner] in there, or other players so the opposition’s coach has a little bit of trouble reading us. On the road this week, we might stick with that strategy, but we’ll just keep it in the pocket for now.”‘

‘Jack Eichel extended his point streak to 10 games with a three point night, Johan Larsson has three assists, while Rasmus Asplund scored his first career NHL goal in a five goal blitzs of New Jersey in the first period.’

‘Players are very particular about their sticks and Johansson thinks just that minor change has affected him, “I’ve changed the model a little bit, Bauer came out with a new model, but it’s the same curve and same stick otherwise, but it hasn’t felt right since then.”’

‘Neither team was penalized in the third period, with the Sabres and Maple Leafs trading chances at both ends of the ice. Matthews had one last chance for Toronto before the end of regulation, but Marco Scandella was able to sweep the puck away from the goal line before it could cross the line.’

‘Jack Eichel had an assist and now has points in nine straight games scoring eight goals and eight assists for 16 points. Eichel has an assist in seven straight games. Other than Andersen, I thought Eichel was the second best player on the ice. He made some plays defensively that the best defensive forwards in the league would’ve been proud of.’

‘Linus Ullmark was very good in goal for the Sabres once again, stopping 25 of 29 shots faced for his sixth win of the year.’