'Smooth poise' | Power contributes to shutdown effort in NHL debut

TORONTO - Owen Power felt his new reality set in as he lined up for the opening faceoff of his NHL debut.
Surrounding him was the familiar scenery of Scotiabank Arena, where the Mississauga native attended games growing up, as well as upwards of 80 friends and family members in the stands. Auston Matthews, the NHL's greatest goal scorer, lined up a few feet away.
Power had already played in the Frozen Four, the World Championship, even the Olympics. This was something else entirely.
"I mean, it's something you dream of as a kid all growing up," Power said. "It definitely was a little different."

Then the puck dropped, and Power played as though it were any other day at the rink. He skated 19:50 and had a plus-2 rating in a 5-2 win for the Sabres over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
"Smooth poise," Alex Tuch said. "Right away, there's no panic in his game. I feel like he's been in the league 10 years already and it's his first game."
Don Granato expected no less from Power, whom he had tracked for more than four years before the Sabres drafted the defenseman with the first-overall pick last July.
Granato was attending a minor hockey tournament in Toronto, watching another future No. 1 pick in Jack Hughes. A colleague from his days scouting with the Maple Leafs told him to jump to the other rink and catch a glimpse of the defenseman playing for Mississauga.
Granato liked what he saw so much that he continued to follow Power in the coming years. Both ended up in Chicago, Granato as an assistant coach with the Blackhawks and Power with the USHL's Chicago Steel. Granato would attend Steel practices to watch Power play.
The Sabres coach had no hesitation, then, when it came time to start Power against the NHL's leading goal scorer.
"I had no anxiety with him because I've watched him play so much," Granato said. "He is a number one pick overall, an elite player. Honestly, he has such a calm to him and such a presence to him, you see his ability to almost slow the game down around him.
"I've watched that in him, that presence in him for such a long time. I just knew he would get a feel for the pace and everything right away."

Granato continued to allow Power to line up against Matthews throughout the night. In fact, Power saw more of Matthews and Mitchell Marner than any other Maple Leafs forwards.
Power made perhaps his most noteworthy play of the night with Matthews streaking down the ice to his right on a 2-on-1 rush. Mark Giordano, a Norris Trophy winner, carried the puck to his left.
Power, aware that a likely 60-goal scorer loomed nearby, calmly awaited the crossing pass from Giordano and intercepted it.
"Was I surprised? No," Granato said of the play. "Was I happy? Extremely happy."
Power was part of a six-man defense corps that featured three other players under the age of 23 in Rasmus Dahlin, Henri Jokiharju, and Mattias Samuelsson. Casey Fitzgerald was the elder statesman of the group at 25.
Together, they held the Maple Leafs - the NHL's second-highest scoring team - to two goals. Matthews was held without a goal for just the fourth time since the start of March.
"We went with that young D corps to see how they would respond in this building with nowhere else to look but within that group," Granato said. "I thought they did a nice job."
It helped that the youngest member of the group played as though he had been there before.
"He's got a really bright future ahead of him," Tuch said.

Sabres take the series

The Sabres beat the Maple Leafs for the third time since the beginning of March to take the season series, three games to one. They scored five goals in each of the three victories.
Kyle Okposo and Tage Thompson scored power-play goals to break 0-0 and 1-1 ties during the first two periods. Jeff Skinner and Rasmus Dahlin added insurance with goals scored less than three minutes apart in the third period.
Rasmus Asplund added an empty-net goal with 2:18 left to play.

Up next

The Sabres return home to host the St. Louis Blues on Thursday. Tickets are available here.
Coverage on MSG begins at 6:30 p.m. The puck drops at 7.