The goal is and always been to make KeyBank Center a tough place for the visitors to play. We've heard it year-in/year-out for, what seems like, ever and the results have been unimpressive lately. Beginning with the two years Dan Bylsma was head coach, Jack Eichel's first two as Buffalo's franchise center, the Sabres won only 16 home games the first year and posted a 36-34-12 record for 84 points out of a possible 164 total points. After Bylsma was fired, Phil Housley took over and the team won only 11 home games in the 2017-18 season while on their way to the No. 1 overall pick. In Housley's two-year tenure the Sabres record got worse at home overall at 32-40-10, but showed stronger tendencies last season with a 21-15-5 record, best in the prior four seasons.
This year under new head coach Ralph Krueger the Sabres began the home portion of their 50th anniversary season with an electrifying 7-2 win over the New Jersey Devils. Fans leaving KeyBank Center that night, and fans across Sabreland, had the feeling that this could be a real special season, at least at home. The Sabres came back to reality a bit on Monday night as the Columbus Blue Jackets put the clamp-down on Buffalo and defeated them 4-3 in overtime.
Krueger insists the Sabres are in a "learning phase" right now so we should expect a lot of growing pains. "It's important sometimes to have tough nights," he told the media yesterday. "Those setbacks are really, really good, especially when you take a point out of them.
"That's the way we're managing it today."
The Sabres will have the opportunity to keep it rolling at home as they face the Montreal Canadiens tonight to kick off a three-game home stand. Montreal offers up a different set of problems to overcome for the Sabres and are backstopped by one of the best goalies in the game, Patrick Roy. Buffalo is 5-3-2 in their last 10 home games against Le Habitants.
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A lot has been made about forward Evan Rodrigues being in the lineup for the first time this season. Rodrigues was relegated to the pressbox by Krueger to start the season, a move which left him "shocked."
"That was obviously not a situation I thought I'd be in," he said
For as surprising as it was to him, and pretty much everyone else including this writer, Rodrigues handled it like a pro.
"Evan's been outstanding," said Krueger of Rodrigues' professionalism. "I mean he's the one that said to me, 'Somebody's going to be in this spot all season long.'
"He's been nothing but supportive to his teammates and to the process," said the coach.
Rodrigues is in the lineup because forward Conor Sheary is week to week with an upper body injury and it looks as Krueger opting to simply replace Sheary with Rodrigues and not mess with the other lines. Without a morning skate one would expect that Krueger will stick with his lines and pairings he used for the first three games:
Olofsson - Eichel - Reinhart
Skinner - Johansson - Sobotka
Vesey - Mittelstadt - Rodrigues
Girgensons - Larsson - Okposo
McCabe - Ristolainen
Dahlin - Miller
Scandella - Jokiharju
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