Thompson shows how good he can be with six-point game for Sabres

BUFFALO -- Just how good can Tage Thompson be?

The Buffalo Sabres forward sat in front of his cubicle at KeyBank Center last week mulling that question. Scoring goals, it seems, comes a lot easier to the 25-year-old forward than finding an answer to the question that had just been posed to him.
After several seconds of contemplation, he shrugged his shoulders.
"No one knows," he said. "I don't know if anyone really knows how good someone can actually be.
"Even as well as things are going, you're always asking yourself: 'How can I be better? What more can I do to help the team win?' So I think it's just that hunger, not being satisfied with where you're at and always striving to get better."
If his career performance Wednesday is any indication, he's doing exactly that.
In the type of game most NHL players only can dream about, Thompson had six points, five of them coming on goals, in Buffalo's 9-4 victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. In the process, he put himself in some elite company in the record book.
Thompson became the fourth player in NHL history to score four goals in the first period of a regular-season game, joining Peter Bondra (Feb. 5, 1994), Grant Mulvey (Feb. 3, 1982) and Joe Malone (Feb. 23, 1921).
He also became the sixth player in the past 40 years to score four goals in any period, joining Patrick Marleau (Jan. 23, 2017), Mario Lemieux (Jan. 26, 1997), Bondra, Joe Nieuwendyk (Jan. 11, 1989) and Al Secord (Jan. 7, 1987).

His five points (four goals, one assist) in the first period made him only the fifth player in the past 30 years to have at least five points in any period, joining Mika Zibanejad (six, second period, March 17, 2021), Sam Gagner (five, third period, Feb. 2, 2012), Peter Forsberg (five, third period, March 3, 1999) and Cliff Ronning (five, third period, April 15, 1993).
Having your name mentioned in the same conversation as Hall of Famers like Lemieux, Nieuwendyk and Forsberg, well, how's that for getting better?
"Any time you score five goals in a game and have a performance like that, it's something you'll never forget," Darryl Sittler, who holds the NHL record for points in a game with 10 (six goals, four assists) on Feb. 7, 1976, told NHL.com on Wednesday. "It's something he'll never forget and the fans won't forget. And remember, a performance like that isn't a fluke."
If anyone knows that it's Sabres coach Don Granato, who coached Thompson with the USA Hockey National Team Development Program in 2014-15.
"To have a history with Tage, seeing him as a teenager and watching his growth and development, it's really special for me to be part of that success and to watch that happen," Granato said after the game Wednesday. "When you've seen a kid like him put the work in, it's nice to see the reward and rewards like this. Very special night."
To underscore that point, Granato waited until all the Sabres players were seated in the dressing room after the game before making a special presentation. One by one he pulled pucks out of his pocket until he'd presented Thompson with five, one for each goal, igniting a huge roar from his teammates.

Thompson, who joined Dave Andreychuk as the only Sabres player to score five goals in a game, is no stranger to producing such offensive outbursts this season. He had six points (three goals, three assists) against the Detroit Red Wings on Oct. 31. With his performance against Columbus, he joined Pat Lafontaine as the only Sabres players with multiple six-plus point games in a season.
"It's like, 'Oh, great play, great play,'" Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin said. "It's a great play every time he's on the ice, so the first few games it was impressive. Now it's like day-to-day stuff."
For Thompson, believe it or not, as satisfying as Wednesday was, there is room for improvement. For him, the hunger inside still churns.
"There's more to do," he said.
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It's a moment Thompson won't soon forget.
On Nov. 12, Patrice Bergeron stepped into the face-off circle for the opening draw between his Boston Bruins and the Sabres during Hockey Fights Cancer Night at KeyBank Center. Before the puck was dropped, Bergeron looked over at Thompson and offered some words of encouragement.
"He knew my wife had been fighting cancer in the past and said he'd heard things were getting better and that he was thinking of us," Thompson said. "That's the class act that he is."
In 2019, Rachel Thompson was diagnosed with chondrosarcoma, a type of bone cancer, and had surgery almost immediately to remove a cancerous mass in her right leg. Every subsequent scan has come back cancer-free, and her next one next summer will reveal if further monitoring will be required.
Whenever Thompson thinks about his journey to hockey prominence and how much he's endured to get there, Rachel always is in his thoughts. And understandably so.
"When she was going through that, it's tough," he said. "You're dealing with harsh realities.
"The rink was the one place where you temporarily escape those things."
For Thompson, it always has been.
Hockey, after all, is in the blood of the Phoenix native. His father, Brent Thompson, had 11 points (one goal, 10 assists) in 121 NHL games for the Los Angeles Kings, Winnipeg Jets and Phoenix Coyotes from 1991-97. As a result, Tage grew up in hockey arenas, complete with the smell of sweaty hockey equipment and stale hot chocolate.
When Brent, now the coach of Bridgeport of the American Hockey League, was playing for Providence of the AHL in 2004-05, his final season as a pro, a young Bergeron was one of his teammates. That's where Tage first got to know his dad's friend, who would go on to become Boston's captain.

"I remember he'd come over and play some street hockey and come over for dinner once in a while," Thompson said of Bergeron. "It's just cool. It's such a small world, the hockey world.
"Having a dad in the game was a big help. We've always been able to talk about things related to the game. Not a lot of people have that type of knowledge or support to lean on."
He would need it.
Thompson was selected by the St. Louis Blues with the No. 26 pick in the 2016 NHL Draft but found himself relegated to a bottom-six role there. In 2017-18, his first in the NHL, he had nine points (three goals, six assists) in 41 games and looked to find a regular spot.

On July 1, 2018, he was traded to Buffalo along with forwards Patrik Berglund and Vladimir Sobotka, a first-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft (defenseman prospect
Ryan Johnson
), and a second-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft (traded to Vegas Golden Knights), for forward
Ryan O'Reilly
. Less than a year later, Rachel received her diagnosis.
"It's been a crazy ride, it really has," he said. "It's not easy to get traded. There's a lot of emotions when you get traded to a new team and you come in, and the first year you're there, your wife gets diagnosed with cancer.
"It was a tough time. I was helped by my faith. As for hockey, maybe escape wasn't the right word to use, but it was a nice little mental break where I could kind of park everything that's going on outside and kind of just focus on hockey for the two or three hours I was at the rink. Obviously when you get back home, you park hockey and you think about your family and how can you help your family at home.
"Yeah, it was a tough time. But thankfully things worked out in the end."
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As dour as things looked several years ago, Thompson's fortunes have changed so much for the better.
On Aug. 30 he signed a seven-year, $50 million contract ($7.14 million average annual value), a clear indication from the Sabres that they were encouraged by his career highs in goals (38), assists (30) and points (68) last season. He's elevated his game even more this season and entered play Thursday fourth in NHL with 40 points (21 goals, 19 assists). His 21 goals are third in the NHL behind Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers (24) and Jason Robertson of the Dallas Stars (23).
Rachel's prognosis continues to be good. In July, the couple welcomed their first child, a son named Brooks.
"I've been blessed on so many levels," Tage said.
Granato couldn't be happier for Thompson, especially after witnessing what the player has endured on and off the ice to get to this point.
"I wouldn't use the term struggle, Granato said. "When you're behind the scenes, you didn't see a guy that was struggling. You saw a guy that was fighting. That's the guy. He was never struggling. He was fighting.
"There's a difference there. You could see that he thought with conviction he's going to succeed. It might not be that very day, but he kept telling himself it was going to happen."
That day came with his historic performance Wednesday. But don't expect him to rest on his laurels. He never has and never will, he says. To use one of his favorite lines, it's time to get better.
"Sometimes you'll look at the highlights and say, 'Wow, what a great play,' or, 'What a cool goal I just scored,'" he said. "But that's fleeting. I'm always looking to improve and help the team be better.
"I don't know how good I can be. But I'm never going to stop working and trying to find out."