Don Granato doesn't want any "Stop" to the way the Buffalo Sabres are going to play.
Sure, mistakes are going to happen. You're going to give up goals. But how many times last year did Granato remind us that boring is bad? You don't want to watch boring hockey and he sure as heck doesn't want to coach it.
While musing with reporters after the morning skate Thursday, Granato said he was keeping things simply for the season opener against the Ottawa Senators. There were no game tapes to study yet, no body of work to go by. Especially against an Ottawa team rife with changes from last year.
"We want to get to 'Go.' This sport is fast and we need to play fast," Granato said. "And we don't need to play analytical. I don't want to confuse them with that. We need to go. And for me, that's what I'm looking for."
Get to "Go." Sounds so simple.
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It's perfect. That's gotta go on a T-shirt somewhere.
The Sabres passed go in the second period and collected their $200 – OK, players these days make a lot more but you get the point – on their way to a 4-1 win over the Senators. It got the season off to a rollicking start and gave a hyped crowd of 15,364 multiple morsels of what this club is capable of.
Buffalo got outshot, 16-9, in a sluggish first period but the Sabres found another gear – "elevating" is Granato's catch-phrase for it – and poured 27 shots on the Ottawa net in the final 40 minutes. They had 15 of those in the second period, when they outskated the visitors plenty, killed off a 5-on-3 and got goals from JJ Peterka and Rasmus Dahlin to take their first lead of the season.
And it came after veteran goalie Craig Anderson stopped a Tyler Motte short-handed breakaway in the first 30 seconds of the period that would have given Ottawa a 2-0 lead. Your goalie can turn a game in moments like that, and how many times have we seen the Sabres not get that save in the last five years?
"A lot of nerves first period I think," Dahlin said. "We came in, relaxed for a bit and then went back out and everyone was kind of warmed up. We just got right back to it."
One thing we noticed during those robust 28 games that finished last season was how the Sabres were able to get to the dressing room at intermission and react better to what was happening. In the first half of the 2021-22 campaign, if the Sabres didn't have much in the first 10 minutes of a game, too often they were toast.
Granato and has staff can get the message through in a way that predecessors Ralph Krueger and Phil Housley never could. And Granato pointed out the second period Thursday still wasn't remotely at the level he wants or expects as there were only snippets of time he was happy with the club's rhythm.
Still, Dylan Cozens was a monster in this one and Peterka, who looked quite a bit more comfortable than he did during an uneven preseason, potted his first NHL goal on a nifty give-and-go with Cozens. Dahlin made it 2-1, absolutely toasting Ottawa forward Mathieu Joseph in bringing the puck out of the Buffalo zone and then taking a slick feed to the slot from Peyton Krebs.
"I saw an opening so I just went for it," Dahlin said. "Sammy (partner Mattias Samuelsson) is backing me up so I'm not scared of having the puck. And I know he's backing me up. I just saw it and went for it."
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Dahlin is in his fifth season now and is closing on 300 NHL games even though he's only 22. His nerves sure seemed to go away fast. Granato knew he had to keep close tabs on his young players' temperatures.
"Opening night is different. There's so much emotion and anxiety that go into it," Granato said. "Some guys are tired before the game even starts. You can see it. Their skating stride looks like they're skating in sand compared to their normal stride and they can start pressing right away because they've built so much into this one moment."
Sure looked like poor Owen Power was in that boat. It seemed like the big guy made more blatant mistakes in the first period than all eight games combined he played last season. Just one of those periods you're going to get from a 19-year-old from time to time. Even one who's 6-feet-6 and holding the mantle of the league's No. 1 overall draft pick 15 months ago.
"There's going to be a little bit more internal pressure on each individual player I think going forward to be better than last year and to continue to grow," said forward Alex Tuch, a grizzled veteran at 26. "That's something that we need to take in stride and really embrace."
There was plenty to embrace on and off the ice in this one. The Sabres did a tasteful "Choose Love" ceremony pregame to console the victims and families of the May 14 Tops shooting and a nice tribute to late coach Joe Crozier during a first-period timeout. Bills quarterback Josh Allen was shown in a suite wearing a Tuch jersey with his teammates. Cue the "Shout" song. The paid attendance was essentially double what the Sabres drew for last October's opener against Montreal.
"You see that crowd, you just want to basically run through a wall so we love having them here," Dahlin said.
Lots of buildup for this one. Now the Sabres get to go again Saturday against Florida without the hype. Stay tuned.
