"I've been fortunate of a couple good plays from our D-men on the first two. That one, you try to take advantage of them. You try to read off what's going on," Rodrigues said Friday.
"There are times where you probably have more opportunities to go for 2-on-1s and stuff like that. But usually on a PK, you're out there for 30, 40 seconds and then the opportunity comes and you don't really have the energy to go for a rush. You just dump it out and get off. It's a little bit of a timing thing, a little luck, but you try to take advantage of it when you get those opportunities."
Rodrigues is fourth among Sabres forwards in average shorthanded ice time this season. Over the last 10 games, he's been second among forwards, behind only Zemgus Girgensons. Buffalo's penalty kill is fifth in the NHL at 83.0 percent.
"He has a really good innate ability to sense an opportunity and he has very, very good speed," Sabres coach Phil Housley said. "His hockey IQ comes through in those situations of just knowing when to jump and when to attack and maybe in some of those situations where he doesn't have an opportunity, he folds back, but he's been really good on the penalty kill."
They'll have their hands full Saturday afternoon when they go up against the Colorado Avalanche and their seventh-ranked power play (clicking at 22.5 percent). Colorado is coming off a 4-0 loss in Dallas on Thursday.
Faceoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET on MSG and WGR 550 with the GMC Game Night pregame show starting at 2:30 on MSG.
Lineup news and notes in the morning will also be up here at Sabres.com.
