Peca recalled having a sense of freedom during his own time with the Sabres, an era when systems were less complicated compared to how they've become today. Sure, there was strategy - Ted Nolan preferred the left-wing lock; Lindy Ruff ran the trap - but the core of the game was instinctual.
Jochen Hecht played for the Sabres later in Ruff's tenure. Though he smiled sheepishly when discussing the amount of freedom allowed under the fiery head coach, he endorsed Peca's assessment.
"You've got your freedom," Jochen Hecht said. "You've got a little bit of a system, but the best you can be on the ice is when you don't have to think. That's when you use your instincts. When you get a bunch of guys on the ice together who have the same instincts, that will work out great. You'll be dominating in the league."
While Peca identified with the instinctual nature of Krueger's system, others noted the aggressive, pressure-based game plan. The Sabres once again closed their gaps, tightened up the blue line, and controlled the play for virtually the full 60 minutes. The final shot tally was 36-20 in favor of Buffalo.
"They're pressuring the puck a lot," Don Luce said. "They're using their speed to pressure the puck, create turnovers. I think that's the style Ralph wants them to play they're doing it. They're forcing the other team to make mistakes."
"He's got them working as a team, trying to eliminate people all over the ice," Floyd Smith added. "It's what good teams tryto do."
Smith lauded the spirit he saw in the current group, a sentiment you can bet the crowd of 19,070 shared as they waved their commemorative T-shirts in reaction to McCabe's devastating hit on Taylor Hall or marveled at the skill on Victor Olofsson's two goals.
They never took their foot off the pedal, either. When Travis Zajac scored to make it 5-2 in the opening minute of the third period, the Sabres reacted with a ferocity fitting for a one-goal game. Sam Reinhart answered with a goal less than three minutes later, then buried a breakaway with 3:44 left in the contest.
"[The fans] obviously want to see hard work and compete and all those little cliché things that everybody says all the time," Okposo said. "But we did it tonight. I thought we played a pretty blue-collar game. Just ran them out a town. It was pretty fun to be a part of.
"… I just feel like we're kind of suffocating the two teams that we played so far. More nights like this, sign me up."