Ever since this cross-continent beginning of the season was announced, with the fact Lindy Ruff was named coach of the Sabres just days after the 2023-24 season, I was a bit anxious about having to play two games with them right off the bat. Clearly the nightmare scenario was to lose them both and get trolled with the fans (including me) being restless at the home opener on Thursday, while the boring scenario would have been a split – and of course the dream scenario was obviously to win both and take a big step toward burying the disappointment and bad feelings from last season.

Thankfully for my sanity, it was the latter – and to be honest neither game was really that stressful. True, the Devils fell behind in the second period of the Saturday game and were still tied after two before breaking loose with two third-period goals to cement the sweep, but a bit of the pressure had been taken off after the 4-1 romp in the Friday opener anyway. Perhaps the best sign from the weekend was the fact the Devils themselves certainly weren’t satisfied with a split though.

Certainly this team lacked a business-like approach last year when they lost to bad teams frequently and couldn’t put any sustained winning streaks together. And while they didn’t win by as many Saturday, they did play better from start to finish – but let’s start with Friday’s game first. One of the main themes of opening…afternoon was the fact a lot of the new guys made immediate contributions. Start with Jacob Markstrom in goal, as he made 30 saves including some key ones in the first period, including this highlight-reel one on Nicholas Aube-Kubel:

While anyone can make a highlight reel save, sometimes it’s about just not allowing the back-breaking soft goals to get past which was more the problem with our goaltending last season – and really throughout the whole Tom Fitzgerald era other than 2022-23 where they magically got good goaltending from a now-journeyman vet (Vitek Vanecek) and a raw rookie (Akira Schmid). Markstrom couldn’t be faulted on the only goal he allowed to Owen Power in the third period after a rebound and quick feed by Jason Zucker from behind the net, and he kept the door shut after that.

Of course, Markstrom was far from the only newcomer to make his mark on the opener – although you wouldn’t entirely call Stefan Noesen a newcomer, it was his first game back in a Devils uniform since 2019 – either way Noesen certainly made his presence felt by doing what he does, getting to the net and scoring off a feed from actual newcomer Johnathan Kovacevic, who also made a nice play to keep the puck in and find a wide open Noesen to open the scoring at 8:39. Kovacevic, not known for his scoring touch kept up a breakout first period by firing a seeing-eye wrister through traffic and getting his first goal as a Devil at 15:38, with assists going to d-partner Jonas Siegenthaler and Dawson Mercer. While he’s only been here a short time, clearly the kid is well-liked in the locker room as evidenced by his quasi-tongue in cheek nickname of Kovechkin in the first video clip above. At least for one period he did play up to that amalgamation.

After playing a fairly good opening twenty minutes, the Devils pressed their advantage – and it paid off with an early second-period goal to extend the lead with an unlikely line combination. Another fellow newcomer, Paul Cotter took a hard shot from the point that was saved, but Nathan Bastian corraled the loose puck and found a wide-open Nico Hischier in front at 3:29 of the second to give the Devils what proved to be an insurmountable 3-0 lead.

Admittedly some of that feeling was colored by the fact that while I had DVR’ed this game and stayed away from the result, I couldn’t resist the temptation to look up the final score once it got to this point in the game, wanting to immediately know if I was now going to be in for angst. Thankfully the answer was no, but from about that point on in the game really the action tapered off as the Devils played more conservatively – not allowing great chances but certainly not taking the play as much to Buffalo. Power’s goal at 10:07 of the third spoiled the shutout and I’m sure would have raised my eyebrows had I been watching without knowledge of how the game ended up, but to be fair there wasn’t much in the Devils’ play that would have made me too nervous anyway. Sure enough, they would seal the result for good when Bastian and Cotter shockingly combined for another goal at 17:28, albeit an empty netter that gave Cotter his first in a Devil uniform.

If you’re counting, that’s three new additions who scored three of the four goals, along with Markstrom being the winning goalie with thirty saves. Despite the Sabres outshooting the Devils 31-23, you never really felt too ill at ease after the first period. Sometimes the xG and ‘deserve to win meter’ which is popular among the kids doesn’t really tell the whole story. We did dominate both in the second game yesterday morning though, outshooting Buffalo 37-18 in more of a command performance despite not having forward Ondrej Palat who missed the latter game due to his wife giving birth to their second child. Our faceoff percentage even improved dramatically from 42.4% on Friday to 64.7% yesterday.

And yet…after a scoreless first period it was the Sabres who struck first in Game 2, literally moments after Jack Hughes was stopped on a two-on-one, it was Tage Thompson who scored on the other end after a net-mouth scramble for a loose puck at 8:18. As annoying as that was, like I said some of the pressure had been taken off winning the first game, and with the way they were playing I figured the game wasn’t going to end 1-0 or even 2-0. Sure enough just three minutes later we answered back with another quasi-new acquisition doing the honors. Obviously rookie Seamus Casey has been in our system since being drafted, but he’d only made his NHL debut the afternoon before and it only took him two games to score his first NHL goal, firing a pinpoint shot through traffic on a power play at 11:59, with Noesen and Erik Haula getting the assists on the rook’s milestone goal.

If there was one concern throughout the first five periods of the season, it was the lack of offense from key forwards Hughes, Jesper Bratt and Timo Meier with all starting on a line together. When the game was on the line in the third period though, that changed quickly – albeit with some help from an ‘outside’ source, as Jack double-shifted on the fourth line and found an open Cotter, who beat goaltender Devon Levi with a nice move to give the Devils the lead at 7:18, and himself a second goal in two games. For the coup de grace, it was the whole first line that got into the act with Jack springing Bratt on an outlet, and Bratt’s wraparound attempt got Levi completely out of position for the rebound, which Meier banged home at 14:14.

Oh and while he didn’t have as much to do as Markstrom did the day before, Jake Allen also gave the Devils what they needed out of him – a solid backup performance with seventeen saves and also not allowing any shady goals. Solid goaltending, solid D, role players and stars all contributing? You really couldn’t have asked much more out of this weekend with two statement games and almost everyone getting in the act with no real injuries to speak of, in fact the Devils expect to have another newcomer join the lineup Thursday with Brett Pesce likely drawing in on defense. For who remains a question since everyone, especially the two likely #6 and #7 options in Kovacevic and Casey both played very well in Prague. Of course, as talented as the Sabres can be it’ll be a step up in class when we play the Leafs on Thursday for the real home opener.

Speaking of newcomers I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the ‘impact’ Brendan Dillon had early in the second game, laying out the kind of hit you haven’t really seen from a Devils defenseman since maybe Anton Volchenkov? I don’t even remember Volchenkov doing this a lot as a Devil tbh:

Not that it had any real tangible impact in the game (other than the borderline two minute penalty Dillon got for interference), but it’s the intangible impact that’s key here. For too long our defense has been quick but small, with no real physical presence at all. Bringing in the veteran Dillon was one of the new instruments Fitzy brought in to make this group closer to an orchestra than they’ve been in recent years.

Still, it’s early and bigger tests remain. At least they took a couple of steps toward putting last year in the rear view mirror now…sorry Lindy?