A clunky opening period was on the cusp of being followed by a miserable start to the second period for the Buffalo Sabres Thursday night against the Ottawa Senators.
Another neutral zone give-away, this one by center Casey Mittlestadt, created a breakaway for Senators winger Tyler Motte, a chance for Ottawa to take a commanding two-goal lead and increase the tension meter inside KeyBank Center.
But Motte’s shot was stopped by Sabres goalie Craig Anderson, just the kind of turning point in an eventual 4-1 win.
Anderson, the NHL’s oldest current player at 41 years, 144 days, stopped 35 shots to improve his career opening-night record to 8-3-2.
“What an effort,” coach Don Granato said of Anderson. “It’s amazing to think he’s 41 and this is a young man’s sport. In this sport, you’re in your prime in your mid-20s so anything after that is perseverance. Tremendous job because we don’t win that game without him holding things down at really key moments.”
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Clinging to a one-goal lead throughout the third period, Anderson’s first big play down the stretch was with 7:40 remaining when he poke-checked the puck away from a streaking Tim Stutzle.
“I blacked out,” Anderson joked. “It was a 2-on-1 and I wasn’t about to let him have a freebie and I took my chance. Maybe next time, I’ll get beat on it and look silly but (Thursday), it worked.”
Anderson’s final big stop was a blocker save of Claude Giroux with three minutes remaining.
The Sabres sealed the game with 41.9 seconds left on Victor Olofsson’s empty-net goal. As Olofsson celebrated and the bench erupted, Anderson went down to one knee in his crease, another night of solid work completed.
“He came up big for us a lot of times,” Sabres center Dylan Cozens said. “We gave up too many odd-man rushes and he was big back there.”
The first period was all Anderson. The Sabres struggled to gain traction through the neutral zone and were careless with the puck as Ottawa had six of the first eight shots and a 16-9 advantage. The Senators took a 1-0 lead at the 10:16 mark when Drake Batherson fed Brady Tkachuk, whose one-timer beat Anderson to the glove side.
“I think we had some first-period jitters for sure,” Anderson said. “To walk away down one was a blessing and then we figured out how to play our game in the second after we gave up a few breakaways.”
Anderson was starting his 13th opening-night game for his fourth franchise. His first Game 1 assignment was a 5-2 win for Colorado against San Jose in 2008, stopping 38 of 40 shots.
What were some of Anderson’s current teammates up to?
Kyle Okposo was 21 and a New York Islanders rookie.
Jeff Skinner was a 17-year old player for Kitchener in the Ontario Hockey League.
Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin were nine years old.
Owen Power was a month from his seventh birthday.
And Granato was three weeks away from being fired by the American Hockey League’s Chicago Wolves.
It was appropriate Anderson got the call against an Ottawa franchise he spent the most time (10 years, seven more than Chicago and Florida), played the most games (435, 331 more than Colorado) and won the most games (202, 151 more than Colorado).
Anderson started nine Senators openers from 2011-19, back-stopping a shutout at the Sabres in 2013 and winning 3-1 in ’15.
After this opener, the Sabres pointed to Anderson’s breakaway stop of Motte as a needed jolt.
“Every save like that gives us a momentum boost,” Cozens said. “He was great back there stopping breakaway after breakaway.”
