BUFFALO – Sabres winger Alex Tuch said he couldn’t help but smile when he hit the ice for Sunday’s pregame warm-up and soaked in the scene around him.
Forty-two minutes before the opening faceoff, KeyBank Center was packed and buzzing in anticipation of the Sabres’ first game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2011.
“I was like, ‘Wow, this is unbelievable. This is amazing,’” Tuch said Monday. “Like, ‘Let’s go. We’ve got playoff hockey in Buffalo.’”
As players warmed up, Sabres coach Lindy Ruff, who was preparing for the game, received an update on the crowd.
“They came back with a report that this building is going to be loud,” he said. “I think their assessment was pretty good.”
The game was also pretty darn good. Sunday’s wild 4-3 come-from-behind win over the Boston Bruins in Game 1 of their first-round series will forever be remembered in these parts.
In scoring three times and erasing a 2-0 deficit in a span of 4:34 in the third period, the Sabres roared back to stun the Bruins and created bedlam in the rink.
For one night at least, the eyes of the hockey world were focused on Buffalo. That makes Ruff, one of the most iconic figures in Sabres history, smile.
“It tells you what a great hockey town it is,” he said. “… It’s been a long time. Way too long. Our city has been begging for something like this.”
Tuch, whose late empty-net goal became the game winner, said the Sabres endured “14 long years of heartbreak.”
“I’m just glad to be a part of the group that’s helped them find some success and get us back into the playoffs,” he said. “But … that’s not the end goal. We’re just focused on next-game mentality.”
Now, the Sabres, whose roster is comprised of postseason neophytes – 11 players made their debut Sunday – must move on from an emotional opener, no easy task.
Instead of practicing Monday, the Sabres, who host Game 2 of the best-of-seven series Tuesday, held an optional on-ice workout. They plan to hold a full pregame skate this morning.
Coming down from an emotional high like Sunday’s isn’t easy. Ruff knows his players likely had trouble sleeping after the game.
“You look at the game, a later game (7:42 p.m. start), how physical the game was, how demanding it was late to come back and win the game that emotionally you go to decompress,” Ruff said.
The Sabres’ ability to stick to their game plan as Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman stopped shot after shot showcased their maturity and allowed them to break through late.
They’ll need more of that patience Tuesday against the stingy Bruins, whose rigid structure might be their greatest strength.
“We didn’t deviate from what we wanted to do,” Ruff said. “We understand how they play. They’ve had a lot of success. We understand how we play. We talked about after the second period just staying with our game, doing a better job of getting closer together in the offensive zone that three people (join).”
When a third player joined the battle, the Sabres started scoring.
“A lot of our battles there were two,” Ruff said. “A third guy, if you look at a couple of our goals, our three forwards got tight around the net.”
The frenzy of goals – defenseman Mattias Samuelsson put the Sabres up 3-2 at 16:36 – excited the raucous crowd so much Ruff said the building was shaking.
“It wasn’t looking good and then all of a sudden, you pour on four goals in the last eight minutes,” Ruff said. “If there was a chance at bringing the building down, they were going to try.”