How a wild Oilers game changed the Sabres’ entire season originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
It will remain a wild stat for as long as this Buffalo Sabres season continues. On December 9, they had 11 regulation wins and 14 regulation losses. And then they reached 40 wins before 20 losses.
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It all started on that date against the Edmonton Oilers in what turned out to be a 4-3 overtime win.
“It’s obvious: everyone believes the 4-3 overtime victory in Edmonton on Dec. 9 is Buffalo’s pivotal moment,” Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman wrote in his newest 32 Thoughts column this week.
Buffalo went from the bottom of the standings to the top thanks to a surge that started that night.
“One of the most fascinating things about the Sabres’ season is that it went from zero-to-100 at F1 speeds,” Friedman writes. “There was no build, no climb — just an immediate charge from the bottom of the Eastern Conference to the top.”
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That game itself was a weird one, and it might explain the energy gained from it.
Buffalo lost goalie Colton Ellis after a collision in the first period but took a 3-0 lead in front of Alex Lyon anyway.
The Oilers then scored early in the third, in the middle of the third and then with two seconds left in the third.
In overtime, the Oilers don’t lose much, but Alex Tuch decided he’d be the hero on that night and called game for the Sabres.
That began a 10-game winning streak.
“That could have been the game that broke our back,” head coach Lindy Ruff told Friedman. “Lots of excuses that could’ve led to a loss, but we made it a big win.”
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And now, the Sabres have as much momentum as any team in the league. It’ll be fascinating to see how a wild game against the Oilers in December can keep pushing Buffalo all the way into the postseason.
