It's Team Bonding Time for the Buffalo Sabres. With plenty of hockey thrown in, too.
The Sabres take a long road trip seemingly every October and have had a variety of results, but anticipation was the clear feel in the locker room Monday after they practiced in LECOM Harborcenter before heading west on a four-game trip that opens Tuesday night in Edmonton.
The longest trip of the season by days includes stops in Calgary on Thursday and Vancouver on Saturday before wrapping up Oct. 25 in Seattle.
"It will be nice. I always like getting a good road trip in early. It can bring the guys together," Sabres captain Kyle Okposo said. "We'll have a couple of days in Vancouver there we can watch football on Sunday and just kind of hang out. But we're going out there to work. We're going out there to play some really good hockey teams, trying to compete first and foremost. But away from the games, away from the rink, we want to have some fun."
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"It's going to be huge. We've just got to make sure we come out really hard tomorrow and set the tone for the whole trip," added defenseman Rasmus Dahlin. "Obviously, off the ice is going to be a huge bonding trip for the guys being together, away from everyone, just us for 10 days or so. It's going to be so much fun."
The Sabres went 1-3 on their early Western trip last season, a California-to-Seattle jaunt that ended with the trade of Jack Eichel to Vegas. The Western Canada trip was in March, starting with a 6-1 clunker in Edmonton but followed by overtime victories in Calgary and Vancouver. This is the sixth straight full season the Sabres have gone to either California or the Canadian Rockies for a multi-game trip in October, and this is the earliest on the schedule the trip has come since 2016.
"We remember what happened when we went in last year to Edmonton," Okposo said. "That was a really tough night. So we want a little bit of redemption there as well."
The Sabres are 1-1 after splitting home games against Ottawa and Florida to start the season, and coach Don Granato is searching for his team to look crisper with the puck than it has in the first two games.
"We need to be challenged," Granato said. "Unfortunately, you can't take over where you left off last year. We were in a pretty good groove and pretty good sync last year. Things started to feel easy only because of all the work that guys put in. Now we've got to put that work back in because it all went away. With a younger team, you've got to learn you don't just flip a switch when you come back in October and it all works like it did in April."
Granato never wavers on focusing about results. It's about how his team is playing. That's how he felt when his club played at a 102-point pace over the final 28 games last season and that's how he feels now: Do the right things on both sides of the puck and results will usually follow.
"I'll judge this trip about not the camaraderie but how well we work toward that initiative," he said. "You go into four different buildings that are tough buildings to play in. It's a hell of a challenge. And we need to be challenged because we're nowhere near where we were in rhythm and sync like we were at the end of last year. But from the camaraderie standpoint, it's always nice to get guys on the road."
"It will be nice to just continue to get on the same page. That's what the beginning of the season is about," Okposo said. "We want to get off to a fast start, but you want to make sure that you're building a game and growing at the same time."
It's won't be easy to do against the Edmonton tandem of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisatl. McDavid was named the NHL's Second Star of the Week on Monday after collecting four goals and five points while the Oilers split their first two games. His hat trick on opening night against Vancouver helped turn a 3-0 deficit into a 5-3 win.
"Everyone knows those guys are probably the two best in the league in terms of generating offense," said Sabres center Tage Thompson. "Try not to out-chance them. They're going to try to make plays every time they get the puck. Be patient and waiting for your opportunities. Just being in their face making it difficult on them, trying to frustrate them and then make them make turnovers can allow us to get to our offense."
