The Sabres made a point of adding speed to their lineup during the offseason, which came in the form of additions like Conor Sheary and Jeff Skinner at forward and Rasmus Dahlin on defense. But that's not the only reason they've looked faster in their last two games.
Buffalo's ability to move quickly up the ice begins with clean passing from the defensive zone, which has been markedly improved from a season ago.
"If you start off with a bad pass, everyone has to wait for it," defenseman Marco Scandella said. "Being crispy is fast. Smooth is fast. I feel like we're more detailed with that in practice and it's translating to games."
Take Rasmus Ristolainen for example. Of the 21 outlet passes he attempted in a 4-2 win over Vegas on Monday, 19 were successful (per MSG statistician Ray Orrange). He echoed Scandella in saying that the improvement has stemmed from everyday habits in practice.
"When you're executing with the passing - flat, hard passes on the tape - the game is going to be quicker," Ristolainen said. "We can still work on it, but at this time of the year it's better than it was last year."
The onus isn't only on the defensemen. Ristolainen and Housley both mentioned how advantageous it's been to have a puck-moving goaltender in Carter Hutton, but success is also dependent on the work by forwards to make themselves available.
"We call it a block of five guys, getting back in the zone," Housley said. "It also helps that your goalie can handle the puck, because it gives our D an opportunity to get themselves turned up and facing up ice. But I think the forwards have done a really good job of coming back harder on the breakouts so they're available and we're connected as a five-man unit, so we're able to make those 10-foot passes and break down forechecks.
"It's a credit to everybody that's on the ice. We've really focused on coming back into our own end trying to get some picks for our D and even in our transition game, it's about working back and giving support to our defensemen."
