With deadline looming, Sabres turn in complete effort in win over Bruins

Benoit Pouliot plans to spend Monday with his family, as he would any other off day. Not that it will be an ordinary day off, for Pouliot or any of his Buffalo Sabres teammates with the NHL trade deadline - and all the uncertainty the comes with it - looming at 3 p.m. It's just that what happens is out of his control.
"If the phone rings," said Pouliot, an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season, "the phone rings."
Phil Housley's message to his team on Sunday was to worry about what they couldcontrol, in this case their effort in a home game against the Boston Bruins. And, on a day where trade dominos fell throughout the league, the Sabres turned in a complete effort in a 4-1 win.

It was a strong response from the team's loss in Washington less than 24 hours prior, a game for which Housley felt some of his players had been uprepared. Pouliot opened the scoring with 3:34 remaining in the first period and the Sabres led for the remainder of the evening.
"Everybody did their part tonight," Housley said. "They checked well, they were competing tonight, they had meaningful strides. And it was from top to bottom. It was a really solid effort from our guys. It goes to show you that when everybody's focused and prepared and ready to play and playing for each other, we're a different hockey team."
While the Sabres scratched Evander Kane for the second game in a row to avoid risking an injury ahead of the deadline, the Bruins found themselves on the other end of the trade spectrum after acquiring forward Rick Nash from New York on Sunday morning.
Housley expected the trade to give Boston some jump, but the Sabres were ready. Buffalo built a 2-0 first-period lead on the strength of goals from Pouliot and Kyle Okposo, both of which were products of special teams. Pouliot's goal came 11 seconds after Buffalo's first power play expired; Okposo's came on a power play 2:05 later.

When adversity struck, the Sabres responded. Charlie McAvoy scored Boston's only goal, which cut the Buffalo lead in half 3:35 into the second period. It took less than five minutes for the Sabres to answer with a one-time goal from Evan Rodrigues.
Chad Johnson made 34 save and kept the Sabres in the game during a dominant stretch from the Bruins late in the second period. The Sabres were pinned for nearly three full minutes from the time the Bruins dumped the puck into the Buffalo zone with 3:51 remaining in the period, save for an icing.
In that stretch, five Sabres were stranded on the ice for three-plus minutes. Nathan Beaulieu was on longest, totaling 4:02. Pouliot's shift of 3:02 was the shortest of the five.
"It wasn't very fun, to be honest," Pouliot said. "… I don't know how long it was - three, four minutes. But you've just got to bear down. Good thing Johnny was making the key saves because we weren't really moving well after that."
"I wish they would have kept icing the puck," Housley added. "It goes to show, they dug down, they dug in. It was long, the fatigue factor and then the hands go, but they found a way to battle through it. That was a huge push by Boston."
Marco Scandella capped the scoring 3:22 into the third period, again upon the conclusion of a Buffalo power play. The goal was his third in five games.

The Sabres will return to practice on Tuesday, likely a changed team. Housley's message to his team until then?
Try and enjoy the day off.
"There's a lot of things that go into it," Housley said. "I'm sure everybody will be watching the TV and be alert to what's going on. It's a tough time because you never know the situation that's going to occur. My focus is just enjoying the game tonight and we'll see what happens tomorrow."

A strong game from Reinhart

Reinhart extended his point streak to four games with the primary assist on Rodrigues' goal and now has 20 points (7+13) in 19 games. He had two defenders closing in on him along the end boards when he saw Rodrigues rushing toward the net and was able to get just enough on his pass to set up a one-time shot.

"I saw him, just tried to get it out," he said. "I didn't get much on it. It looked like he just closed his eyes and fired it and it was a good shot."
Reinhart finished the night with three shots in 18:31. He rushed through four defenders to draw the hooking call against Zdeno Chara that preceded Okposo's power-play goal, on which he also set the screen in front of Bruins goalie Anton Khudobin.
"Things are working," he said. "I'm just trying to keep my speed up, trying to work back into position and allow myself to get some space. Some nights it might be have the puck offensively and have zone time, some nights it might be coming through the neutral zone off the rush and that was more of the case tonight."

Up next

The Sabres begin a two-game road trip against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night. Coverage on MSG-B begins at 6:30 p.m. with the GMC Game Night Pregame Show, or you can listen live on WGR 550. Puck drop is scheduled for 7.
The team returns home on Monday, March 5 for their first matchup of the season with the rival Toronto Maple Leafs.