EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – Don Granato threw the Buffalo Sabres a tiny curveball at the start of practice here Friday. The Sabres were coming off Thursday's overtime win in Anaheim, their first in 3-on-3 on the road in nearly 23 months, so what did the coach do?
Buffalo maintained possession for most of the extra session and pulled out a 4-3 win Thursday night on Rasmus Asplund's tap-in with 43.9 seconds left off a Victor Olofsson feed.
He dumped standard line rushes. Instead, the Sabres played overtime-style scrimmages. Normally, you do that perhaps in punitive fashion because it's an area that needs work. And the Sabres definitely do.
But the Sabres finally saw success in the form of Victor Olofsson's solo rush and pass to Rasmus Asplund for the game-winning tap-in against the Ducks. So Granato seized on the good feeling to work on things some more.
"It's fun to not always just have a regular practice," Olofsson said at the Toyota Sports Center, the Los Angeles Kings' suburban practice facility. "When we get down to overtime, it's big to get that extra point and it's important to practice on it and we had a really good practice."
"I thought it just fit," Granato said. "Got the guys moving, something they get excited about and something we need to work on and evolve our game in that regard."
Olofsson has eight points (4 goals, 4 assists) in seven games. https://t.co/syjhRj7dyL
— Lance Lysowski (@LLysowski) October 29, 2021
The Sabres did not win a game in 3-on-3 last season, with the four wins in their 4-7 record post-regulation all coming in shootouts. This year, beyond the win in Anaheim, they have a shootout win over Arizona and an OT loss at New Jersey on their ledger.
Overall, the Sabres had played 14 straight 3-on-3 sessions without scoring a goal since Olofsson beat Columbus on Feb. 13, 2020 in KeyBank Center. And their last road overtime winner was by Colin Miller at Edmonton on Dec. 8, 2019.
"We didn't panic. We just kind of played three on three," goalie Craig Anderson said after the win as the Sabres held the Anaheim Ducks without a shot on goal in the OT, which ended after 4:16 of play. "We played great hockey as far as sticking to our system not making any drastic mistakes. Played within ourselves, got into overtime and then the Swedes make a fantastic highlight-reel play."
The Sabres had the puck for the majority of the overtime as Granato shortened his usage of players during the OT compared to previous games. In return, his players were patient, willing to circle back with the puck and making proper changes to not overstay shifts.
"In three on three, I know you want to go, go, go because you got possession," Anderson said. "But sometimes the best play is just to take a whistle and let everyone kind of regroup."
"The guys that I used last night I thought were on last night," Granato said. "And there was more of that than looking at previous games. I just felt these were the guys that actually were feeling a little better. We weren't good, we weren't ourselves a lot of that game. So I was more inclined in that situation to find out who feels good.
Who saw the minutes? Rasmus Dahlin played 2:23, more than half the elapsed time of the period. Other big minutes were logged by Zemgus Girgensons (1:52), Olofsson (1:35), Tage Thompson (1:28) and Kyle Okposo (1:22). It's notable that neither Dylan Cozens nor Jeff Skinner saw the ice.
"We had a tough time with chaos last night," Granato said, noting the Ducks' 37 shots on goal through regulation. "We were unsettled in chaos. And that's uncharacteristic of how we played at this point. They perceived random in situations they should have been familiar with. But when you only have three on three, only six players out there, you can settle down and see more consistency, more patterns."
"My only thoughts are obviously for Kyle and the whole situation. I really can't think anything beyond that," Granato said following the Sabres' 4-3 overtime win over the Anaheim Ducks.
Asplund started the winning play with a long stretch pass to Olofsson, who took advantage of the fact he was going against Anaheim center Trevor Zegras and not a defenseman. Olofsson turned Zegras inside out and Asplund leaked in toward the crease for the tap-in.
"He had a lot of speed and I had looked up the ice and it looked like he had a little bit of space there up on the blue line," Asplund said of Olofsson, the club leader in goals (4) and points (8). "So I passed him a little stretch pass there and he attacked the 'D' right away. It was easy for me to just keep my speed and I ended up on the back side of the net."
"I just saw they had Zegras back there, and I know as a forward you're not always very comfortable in those situations," Olofsson said. "I kind of just wanted to go at him and take advantage of it. And it worked out, so happy for that."
Around the boards
• Center Cody Eakin (upper body) practiced again hard in a non-contact jersey and is expected to miss his fifth straight game Sunday.
"The guys were engaging on him hard. Give him another couple of days. I'll get a report after and see how he was," Granato said. "It's still a little process, but I don't expect Sunday. Possible for the Tuesday game (in San Jose)."
• Thursday's victory snapped the Sabres' seven-game road winless streak that dated to last season (0-6-1). Buffalo's last road win was a 5-2 victory at Washington on April 15. The Sabres lost 17 of their final 20 on the road in the shortened 2021 campaign (3-16-1).
• The Sabres will practice here again Saturday afternoon while the Kings are hosting a 4 p.m. matinee against Montreal in Staples Center. All three teams were at the rink Friday, as Buffalo meets Los Angeles at 4 p.m. on Sunday.
