The Buffalo Sabres have the advantage of leading their first round series with the Boston Bruins 3-2 heading into Game 6 on Friday, but to say that the younger Sabres do not have any pressure on them would be inaccurate, since a loss would force a seventh and deciding game at KeyBank Center on Sunday. The series has been decidedly to the advantage of the visitors, as four of the five games in the series the road club has come out victorious, and the one game the home team won was Game 1’s improbable four-goal comeback late in the third by Buffalo.
The Sabres practiced on Thursday morning before flying to Beantown, where center Josh Norris replaced the injured Noah Ostlund in between Zach Benson and Josh Doan. Head coach Lindy Ruff provided an update on Norris and defenseman Logan Stanley, who was absent from practice.
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Why was Stanley not on the ice?
Sick, (he’s) doing better today, but we held them off…..he was worse yesterday, better today, but then you’re missing a couple days and you haven’t ate. We’re gonna have to judge where the energy level is too at the same time.
Norris was slotted in his old spot, was that just to not disrupt the lineup too much?
For a period of time that line was really good for us, and put him back in his spot. He had a great practice today, skated really well, feeling really good. It’s an opportunity where a guy like (Josh) can just step up and he could be a big difference maker for us.
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Thompson has not scored since Game 1, and during the regular season, not scoring in four games is not a big deal, but everything in the playoffs is magnified. What have you seen from him in his quest to get back on the scoresheet?
You look at the opportunities in the game. A game ago, (the Bruins) were talking about how they needed more out of (Morgan) Geekie and more out of (David) Pastrnak. This is the time of the year, where I think the attention towards your best players always comes to a highlight. If one guy doesn’t have goals for two or three games, no different than McDavid in Edmonton with his start to the playoffs, it’s that time of year. I think if you look at the game and you break it down, (Tage) had an unbelievable chance in the third period where (Peyton) Krebs fed him across crease and he didn’t finish. If that goes, you’re probably not asking me this question today, but it didn’t go in. (Our) best players, we’re depending on them to be difference makers, but the cool thing about our team all year long has been that if the top guys weren’t producing for a few games, we had other guys, whether it was our defense, whether it was (Beck) Malenstyn, guys like that were helping us win hockey games, and it’s really what our team has been about the whole year.
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