Conor Timmins misses skate, stays available for Game 5
Conor Timmins missed Friday morning’s pregame skate for maintenance, but the Sabres defenseman was still available to play in Game 5 at KeyBank Center. Buffalo needed that answer fast with the second-round series tied 2-2 and one team facing elimination by the end of the night.
KeyBank Center and Game 5
Timmins’ absence from the skate did not move him out of the lineup picture. Luke Schenn and Logan Stanley took reps on the third defense pair while the Sabres waited, and rookie Zach Metsa also rotated in with that group.
That left Buffalo sorting its blue line on the same morning it tried to turn a 3-2 win in Montreal into a series lead. The Sabres had evened the matchup in Game 4, but they entered Game 5 carrying a 2-3 home record in the playoffs.
Lindy Ruff’s lineup decisions
Lindy Ruff framed the matchup as tight before the series, saying the numbers showed “everything was tight.” He repeated that view Friday morning, calling the teams “Two really evenly matched teams,” and pointed to the way his club handled the previous game.
“We didn’t play that great in Game 3,” Ruff said. “I thought that first eight, 10 minutes in Montreal in Game 4 was as good as we can play. We’d like to carry that momentum back into our room.”
The coach also narrowed the focus to the opening stretch. “Let’s worry about that first period. Play a good first period, then we’ll go on to the next period,” he said, with the lineup picture still shaped by Timmins’ status and the third-pair rotation behind him.
Pominville’s night in Buffalo
Game 5 also came with a nod to Jason Pominville, who was set to bang the drum before the opening faceoff. Wednesday marked the 20th anniversary of his short-handed overtime goal in Ottawa, the play that sent the Sabres to the Eastern Conference final in 2006.
Ruff, who will see Pominville inducted into the Sabres Hall of Fame next season, recalled that goal and the player behind it with clear admiration. “I instantly think of the Pominville goal where he drove in and won the series for us,” he said, adding that a French scout once told him Pominville “has the hands of a surgeon.” “And he was right,” Ruff said.
Pominville’s old coach also called him a player whose shot “was deadly” and said he “(was) a complete two-way player,” but the immediate Buffalo concern was still the same: whether Timmins would take the ice and settle the third pair in a tied series at KeyBank Center.
