Breaking down 4th line's recent impact, with insight from Malenstyn

LOS ANGELES – The first line went off Thursday in Anaheim, but the Sabres’ fourth line has been a force for a few games, now.

Buffalo practiced Friday at Crypto.com Arena to prepare for Saturday’s matchup with the Kings. The matinee will wrap up a road trip in which forwards Beck Malenstyn and Tyson Kozak have made their mark on each game, helping the Sabres to a 2-0-1 record.

Peyton Krebs was on the fourth line before Thursday’s successful promotion, then Sam Carrick stepped in after a four-game injury absence. With Malenstyn and Kozak together at 5-on-5 during the trip, Buffalo has an 8-2 edge in high-danger scoring chances, which doesn’t include Kozak’s goal Thursday (Natural Stat Trick).

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“It’s a fun, just simple brand of hockey when all three of us can be on the same page," Malenstyn told Sabres.com. "Just try to get pucks in behind them, play with our speed, work the puck down low, try to finish most of our shifts in the offensive zone, set other lines up."

Here’s a play from each of the three games to illustrate the line’s impact.

Saturday in Washington, 1st period:

Kozak won a defensive-zone faceoff – he won five of eight draws that night – then skated 200 feet and crushed 6-foot-5, 245-pound Dylan McIlrath into the end boards. Kozak (5-11, 187) then stole another puck from McIlrath, and Malenstyn set Louis Crevier up for a big slap shot.

In total, the fourth line spent 36 seconds in the Capitals’ end during that shift, earning the Sabres an offensive-zone faceoff.

“Yeah, Big Mac isn’t on the receiving end of those too often,” laughed Malenstyn, a former teammate of McIlrath’s in Washington. “He came flying down and pinched on me after. We were joking about it after the game, he was just trying to get even for Kozy getting him. I’m like, ‘It wasn’t me, so what’re we doing here?’”

Tuesday in San Jose, 1st period:

Malenstyn dished a cross-ice backhand pass to Krebs for the zone entry. Krebs dropped to Olen Zellweger, who tossed a wide-angle shot to the net with Malenstyn parked in front. Malenstyn whacked at the puck – he was credited with three shots on goal in one second – but couldn’t push it through goalie Yaroslav Askarov.

“There’s probably a fine line of not being too tight, where I didn’t really have any opportunity to elevate over a pad or make a move around it when you’re right on top of him like that,” Malenstyn said. “But in the big picture, you bring yourself in there, you bring bodies with you with defenders, it creates a lot of chaos, pucks can bounce around, guys can slip off.

“That tone of just being in and around the net is something that I try to do all the time.”

That early effort may have been a tone setter for the Sabres, who had sticks and bodies in the crease all night against the red-hot Askarov. Malenstyn was also on the ice when Zellweger scored the game winner later on.

Thursday in Anaheim, 1st period:

Penalty trouble had the Sabres trailing 2-0 right off the bat, but the fourth line turned the tide. Malenstyn controlled the puck and went low-to-high to Rasmus Dahlin, whose wide shot rimmed around to Mattias Samuelsson. As Samuelsson pinched down to win a puck battle, Carrick and Kozak quickly covered the point, and Carrick assisted Kozak’s seeing-eye one-timer through Malenstyn’s screen.

“You want to try to get a piece of everything you can; it always heightens the odds,” Malenstyn said. “But when you swing, you miss, then you hear the post and hear it go in, that’s just as good.”

“That part of our game I think has been missing,” said coach Lindy Ruff of the offensive-zone cycling, “but these last couple games, we’ve done some really good work in the O-zone.”

Lineup notes

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen manned the starter’s net, so he’s expected to face the Kings for his first appearance since last Saturday – he stopped 30 of 34 Capitals shots and was a big reason the Sabres left town with a point.

Forward Noah Östlund, who scored his fourth goal of the season in Anaheim, missed practice for maintenance reasons. He should be good to go against the Kings.

5-on-6 practice

After allowing two late 6-on-5 goals to the Ducks, turning a safe lead into a nailbiter, the Sabres spent much of Friday’s short practice on those situations.

“A little bit of the rush details, where we just overplayed the rush play and gave them a goal. So yeah, there’s some details,” Ruff said. “I don’t think anybody took [the lead] for granted; I thought our compete during the game was incredible. We just made some mistakes that we don’t typically make.”

Practice sound

Up next

Sabres-Kings puck drop is scheduled for 4 p.m. EDT, with MSG’s pregame coverage beginning at 3:30.