"We came out with the mindset of playing hard all over the ice," alternate captain Ryan O'Reilly said of the first meeting with Toronto. "I thought we skated well and made it difficult on them. We got a couple good bounces and went from there.
"It was a complete game that we were prepared for, and same thing [tonight]. We've had some time off here. Our start's going to be important tonight."
Evan Rodrigues will be back in the lineup for the Sabres after missing the past five games with an upper-body injury. He'd scored goals in back-to-back games prior to being injured and has nine points (4+5) in his last 11 games overall. The increase in production, Phil Housley said, had to do with an increase in shots.
"You can see when he does shoot the puck, he gets results," the Sabres coach said. "I wish he would do it more often, especially on the power play, getting pucks to the net. I just like Evan's game, he's just played a good two-way, solid game for us."