Last week I wrote about the Buffalo Sabres and the unique and not-so-unique ways they're scoring goals 5on5. There's a ton of creativity involved, let's make that clear, but it's creativity that shows up as a result of clear concepts. 

Since that post they've scored seven even strength goals. This was immediately following an 8-7 barn-burning victory ove the Tampa Bay Lightning in which they only scored three even strength, with five coming on the powerplay. 

So once again let's focus on 5on5. Watching those seven goals revealed no surprises as five of them came off o-zone play, specifically having four players in the zone and involved. The first one is the key - it comes immediately following a rush. If we can score off a rush, that's the priority, right? Well, of the seven they scored only two came off the rush. The other team is trying too. But if the rush doesn't work then the Sabres immediately launch their o-zone play which calls for the D to get off the blue line. Chaos ensues for the opposition while Lindy Ruff encourages creativity for his squad. 

Watch the seven goals in question and count how many times you see four in the picture. This is easy to duplicate in practice, run some small area games where the player at the top has to be switched out with one of the four in the zone. It requires some skill and patience of course, but that's basically the Sabres' whole thing right now. Skill and (a lot) of patience.