Sabres hope to carry momentum of road trip into 5-game homestand

Last time the Buffalo Sabres took the ice at KeyBank Center, they witnessed firsthand how a team could dominate simply on the merit of hard work. In this instance, the team was the Dallas Stars, who the Sabres admitted had outcompeted them in a 7-1 Dallas victory on Jan. 20.
Jason Pominville said after that game that the Sabres needed to use Dallas as an example of how to turn their own season around. Over the course of the next week, it seemed like they did. The Sabres competed their way to a three-game sweep of their road trip in Western Canada heading into the All-Star break.
With a five-game homestand set to begin against the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night - and with nine of their 14 games in February set to be played at KeyBank Center - the Sabres will now set out to make sure that they're the ones setting the tone at home ice from here on out.

"I think it's really important," coach Phil Housley said. "… We're playing a lot of teams that are in playoff contention or are in the playoffs, which is a great challenge for us. We need to put our foot down here and have the same type of effort. We don't need to change anything. We have to just play a simple game."

Housley has preached attention to detail and sticking to the game plan all season. Following the loss to Dallas, the message finally stuck. The Sabres went toe-to-toe with one of the league's hottest teams in a 2-1 overtime victory over the Calgary Flames last Monday, and then won 5-0 in Edmonton the following night.
They capped the road trip with a 4-0 win in Vancouver on Thursday, marking their first three-game win streak of the season. The team performance resulted in individual honors on Monday, when Jack Eichel and Robin Lehner were named the NHL's Second and Third Stars of the Week](https://www.nhl.com/sabres/news/jack-eichel-robin-lehner-nhl-stars-of-the-week/c-295408902?tid=277567768), respectively.
Lehner turned in back-to-back shutouts for the first time in his career. He and Chad Johnson combined to go a perfect 80-for-80 against even-strength shots during the road trip, with the lone goal against coming in Calgary with the Flames on the power play.
The recognition was nice, Lehner said, but it spoke more to the defensive performance in front of him.
"We defended," Lehner said. "We started playing defense and understood it started in the other end of the ice. The amount of work our forwards did over the last three games was incredible, just them coming back so hard and making it easy for our D, making it easy for me. We were defending with three, four five guys. It makes a big difference."

Now that the team has proven to itself that their hard work can translate into results, Eichel said he sees no reason it can't continue coming out of the break.
"Now after doing it and doing it against some good hockey teams and consecutively, I think that we all realize that if we continue to do it that way and work and do the things that we need to do as a team to win games, then we'll be successful," Eichel sad. "It just needs to be there every night."

If it does continue, the Sabres have an opportunity to use the month of February to establish themselves on their home ice. Housley was a part of six playoff teams during his playing career in Buffalo, and recalled what it was like to play in front of the fans on a winning team.
"Fans have come and supported us all year," he said. "But when you're winning in Buffalo, it's unbelievable. The fans are behind you. When you can be a physical team, be a tenacious team, a team that gives a great effort night in and night out, I think that's what they're looking for.
"And if you do that, you're going to get results."

Beaulieu returns to practice

Nathan Beaulieu was back on the ice after leaving the team's game in Calgary following a fight with Flames forward Curtis Lazar. The defenseman said he sustained an upper-body injury upon falling to the ice at the conclusion of the fight.
"I think it's good for him to get some hard practices in and we'll see where he is tomorrow after today, because it was a pretty good grind out there today coming back from the break," Housley said.
The injury was the latest in a line of ailments that have affected Beaulieu, who was only two shifts removed from a three-game absence due to an illness when he fought Lazar. He missed five games with a separate illness in December and seven games with an upper-body injury beginning in late October.
"I feel good, enjoyed my break," he said. "It's been tough to get some games here and get it going because it seems like between sickness and injuries it's been tough. Hopefully the last 33 games of the year, I'm just wishing for a clean bill of health."

Lines at practice

With Eichel getting the day off after taking part in All-Star festivities during the weekend, Jacob Josefson filled in on the top line between Zemgus Girgensons and Kyle Okposo. Here's how the full lineup appeared in practice:
28 Zemgus Girgensons - 10 Jacob Josefson - 21 Kyle Okposo
20 Scott Wilson - 90 Ryan O'Reilly - 23 Sam Reinhart
9 Evander Kane - 22 Johan Larsson - 29 Jason Pominville
67 Benoit Pouliot - 71 Evan Rodrigues - 13 Nicholas Baptiste / 17 Jordan Nolan
6 Marco Scandella - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
19 Jake McCabe - 93 Victor Antipin
41 Justin Falk - 8 Casey Nelson
4 Josh Gorges - 82 Nathan Beaulieu
40 Robin Lehner
31 Chad Johnson