'HE'S A GAMER'

KANATA - Tyler Toffoli has a new set-up man.
While every good sniper needs one, the funny thing about chemistry is that it doesn't always come naturally. Sometimes, you have to work it at. Absorb it. Establish a foundation to form tendencies, trust, predictability and a pace that both players are comfortable with.
Inevitably - if you stick with it - the results will come.

"Doobs (Dillon Dube) made the point that he assisted on my 20th last year, too," laughed Toffoli, who nabbed his 20th and 21st goals of the season the other night, with some help from his red-hot running-mate.
Back then, Dube was off on a clear-cut break, but dished off to No. 73 for an easy, empty-net tap-in. This time, it involved a bit more spice. Dube showed great patience and made a sublime play to draw the defender, before lobbing a soft area pass into the slot, where Toffoli could meet up with it and put home at the far post.
He set up another - Toffoli's 21st - with an equally savvy backhand feed while surrounded by three Sabres. Toffoli then pulled the puck into a shooting position and snapped that patented wrister top-cheddar on the Buffalo netminder from inside the faceoff dot.
"I'm definitely not planning on stopping," Toffoli said after the game. "I want to keep going and keep rolling."
Ditto, Dube.
Clearly, there's a harmony developing between the two.
"It's great," Dube said of the run they're on, which includes a career-high four-point night for himself in Buffalo. "He's an unbelievable shooter. The goal he scored - the second one - he was outside the dots and changed the angle on his stick and it was back bar.
"I could try that shot 100 times and it wouldn't even go near there."

When you break down the film, it quickly becomes clear how impressive that slippery snipe truly was. Toffoli gets the pass inside the blueline and slowly creeps down toward the faceoff circle. His toes are pointed uphill and the puck is shielded by his own body, before quickly pivoting his left foot and swinging his hips into a shooting position.
Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen actually played it quite well, tracking the scorer's movements as best he could before Toffoli whipped it across the body and found a sliver over the glove.
"He's a pure goal-scorer in this league and to play with him, you're always looking to find him," Dube said. "When you have the opportunity, you're always looking for him, to find him in the slot, because he is a goal-scorer. It's fun playing with him.
"When a guy shows up in big moments like that and has played in big moments in his career... He's a gamer. It's fun playing with a guy like that."
Dube broke down the play in great detail afterward, marvelling at how Toffoli could be that smooth.
Or that deceptive.
Even he wasn't entirely sure where Toffoli was going to put that puck - whether the return feed was coming shortly, if he was dump it into the opposite corner, or take a shot like he did.
That's all part of the learning process for a young player, who - indeed - is finding the opportunity to skate with a player of his calibre enlightening.
"The more games you get to play together, the better you'll get," Dube said. "It's a little different coming out of the break, but even coming off it, we had a couple good games and tried to build off that game the other night.
"We need all four lines doing their job and that's what we're trying to do every night."