Mike Harrington: Sabres need to look like they have the last 2 games, and now have to string wins

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It's in there.

Seriously.

Look at what we saw Tuesday night in KeyBank Center.

This really is quite a different Sabres outfit than the one that muddled through last season.

After a 4-2 win over the Dallas Stars, a team plenty of people are picking to win the Stanley Cup or at least play into June, the Sabres are back on the ice here Saturday afternoon against Detroit with a chance at a real live three-game winning streak something they didn't do last season until late February.

Buffalo Sabres right wing JJ Peterka (77) avoids a hit from Dallas Stars defenseman Nils Lundkvist (5) during the third period at KeyBank Center on Tuesday, Oct.

22, 2024.

They traveled through North America in Don Granato's swan song aimlessly trying to claim an identity and never found one.

In fewer than 10 games, it's pretty clear they know what Lindy Ruff wants and are capable of producing it.

Go hard to the net.

Win your puck battles.

Enough dumb penalties.

It's all about the consistency.

"Lindy's done a good job of allowing us to have no hesitation," said center Peyton Krebs, who went hard to the net and was rewarded with the game's first goal on a midair bunt after Beck Malenstyn's deflection went off the crossbar.

"We know the game plan every night, and as long as we continue to do that, we're going to see success.

It's showing and we've obviously got a long ways to go still, but this game is a great start, and we're looking forward to seeing where it goes." We've already seen some relentless hockey before this season.

The Sabres (3-4-1) looked great in their KeyBank Center opener against Los Angeles for 40 minutes but fell apart in the third period.

They were solid in their two previous wins, against Florida and Chicago, but those came with asterisks.

The Flying Bedards were conquered Saturday night but they're still rebuilding.

The Panthers, meanwhile, were only a facsimile of the Stanley Cup champions when they were here Oct.

12 without Aleksandr Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, and with Sergei Bobrovsky given the night off in goal.

Look for them to look a wee bit different in Monday night's return engagement.

Thompson had a multi-point night with one goal and an assist, and he has five goals with eight points in eight games.

In beating the Stars, one of the best of the West in the early season, Ruff said there was "just a lot of good stuff in the game." That capsulizes it pretty well.

Tage Thompson already has five goals on the season which has him on a 51-goal pace and he looks like the same beast we saw two years ago.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen came within 412 minutes of a shutout and has blocked 62 of 66 shots the last two games.

Owen Power had three assists, including a ridiculous cross-ice pass to set up Thompson for his one-timer that sizzled past Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger to put the Sabres in command, 3-0.

Rasmus Dahlin, finally starting to look healthy, was making plays with the puck.

He had a team-high five shots on goal and nine attempts.

Dylan Cozens, still stuck on no goals, was nonetheless active with four shots and seven attempts.

The Sabres had 26 blocked shots in the game and killed off all three Dallas penalties, showing more discipline than they have in recent games by not taking any penalties in the last 37 minutes.

You have to pile up points in your home arena and the Sabres just never do.

So with the highly-billed Dallas Stars in town on Tuesday night to start this 10-game stretch that goes through Nov.

14, the Sabres need to keep trending better at home.

"Our team as a whole is just more mature," Thompson said.

"We've got a lot of guys that have been here for a while, a lot of young guys that have learned.

And I think the biggest thing for us is puck management.

There's a lot of times in the past where we come out and we want to create offense, and that's a great thing to have, but at the risk of making plays at their blue line or your blue line, that gives them free offense.

It just gets you chasing in the game." The doomsday theorists need to be reminded the Sabres have seven points and nobody else in the Atlantic Division has more than nine.

And don't talk to me about points percentage and games in hand and how the Sabres are in arrears in those areas.

We're a week before Halloween and the season stretches to April.

Right now, you just pick up points and stay in the mix.

You just don't want to already be 10 points out of a division lead like Nashville, which finally won its first game Tuesday night.

You don't want to be eight back like Colorado and Philadelphia are.

The Sabres aren't.

They had a ridiculously goofy opening to the season with their European trip and are just now figuring things out, going 3-1-1 since their 0-3 start.

Tage Thompson scored a highlight-reel goal in the third period to help the Sabres pull away for a 4-2 win over the Dallas Stars in KeyBank Center on Tuesday night.

They outwaited the Stars in this one and didn't get impatient, as it took more than 32 minutes for Krebs and Ryan McLeod to open the scoring with goals in a span of 1:23 of the second period.

It was the Stars, and not the Sabres, who got frustrated at parts of the first 57 minutes the way Buffalo was clogging the neutral zone and not losing its sense of position.

"We've been on the flip side of that, and it (stinks) to play against stuff like that," Thompson said.

"So I think that's just kind of the identity that we have.

Everyone's been committed to that.

I think those little things add up over time, and I like where our game is at right now." You have to like it.

The Sabres have much better depth in their lines and McLeod has been a revelation.

Before Connor McDavid scored a pair of goals later in the evening for Edmonton in Carolina, McLeod's four goals were equal the combined total of former teammates McDavid and Leon Draisaitl thus far.

"That guy's got some speed for sure," Krebs said.

"He's a great guy off the ice, works hard, plays the right way.

He brought that from Edmonton, and it's exciting." "We had a good preseason and then we suffered a couple tough losses," Ruff said.

"I think when you deal with losses like that, the adversity can make you stronger.

And I think it's making us stronger." Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sports Columnist {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items..

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