The Sabres 5-2 loss to the Florida Panthers looks lopsided on the score line, but it was a winnable game lost, instead.
BUFFALO — After building momentum with a three-game winning streak, the Sabres’ rematch against the Florida Panthers, a team they beat while they were without two of their top players and faced the backup goaltender, having to deal with them with Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, and Sergei Bobrovsky made for a stiffer, more ornery challenge.
Instead, the Sabres found themselves down 2-0 in the first period because of their own mistakes but rallied in the second period to knot it up 2-2. But mistakes were their undoing in dropping a 5-2 decision on Monday night.
Whether the mistakes were beyond obvious or more subtle in the moment but damaging in the end, they were enough to have head coach Lindy Ruff well agitated following the game.
“You can say we had a good start, but we gave them odd-numbered rushes,” Ruff said. “We missed our assignments and you a team like that, they made us pay dearly. Talked about odd-numbered rushes, if you’re going to hand a team that was just Stanley Cup champions odd-numbered rushes, you’re going to pay dearly, and they made us pay. That’s on us.”
More from a frustrating and disappointing night for the Sabres ahead.
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The urge to smooth out the edges of what was a messy game for the Sabres is there, but the desire to crush them for the result isn’t necessary either. In an 82-game season, there will be nights like these. The problem is Sabres fans have been through a lot of these nights already and they’re over it.
Understandable.
But if there was a throwback in this game, it was how Ruff managed the lineup throughout and changed things around based on who was making errors, be they turnovers or otherwise.
For example, Nicolas Aube-Kubel’s return to the lineup after missing eight games saw him slotted to start on a line with Dylan Cozens and Jack Quinn. But midway through the second period, he was with Sam Lafferty and Beck Malenstyn on the fourth line while Peyton Krebs joined Cozens and Quinn. That switch wasn’t made in an effort to find someone that can click with Cozens and Quinn, however.
“Aube missed his first assignment, which allowed their guy the 2-on-1,” Ruff said. “Just, I think, a little bit of rust in him. We wanted to try to set the tone in our building and make sure we got above the right guys. We got above, but we let a guy beat us up ice and that cost us dearly right off the bat. So, I know being out – no excuse.”
It’d be especially gnarly to harp on a mistake like that right now but having that happen while on a line with a pair of guys who are absolutely fighting it makes a mistake like that stand out even more. For what it’s worth, Aube-Kubel with Lafferty and Malenstyn worked very well together based on the shot metrics, but the fourth line, whoever has been on it, has not been a problem. Guys on that line understand the assignment and execute it.
For Cozens and Quinn, however, there were some opportunities on the power play for both players, but at 5-on-5 it was extremely tough again. They were out-attempted, outshot, out-chanced, and in Quinn’s case, outscored by the opposition. The advanced stats are ugly and there’s just no juice in their collective games at all.
You could cite the absence of Zach Benson. You could talk about how Jiri Kulich could use more time with them. You could talk about how maybe they need to juggle more things around. Or… we could just talk about the thing we’ve been saying this summer about how the team needed some real top six forward help.
This isn’t to put down Jason Zucker who has done his job well and scored on the power play for the second straight game, but even in speaking with him over the summer about coming to Buffalo he said he was ready for whatever role in the top nine forwards. Team guy, good guy, but was not the guy meant to be in the top six. And that’s fine… as long as they added to the top six! But they didn’t and this is well-worn territory and preaching to the choir who all agreed about the issue since summertime.
Would that help Cozens and Quinn now? Hypotheticals never solve anything, but the results that have been generated with everyone else they’ve tried on that line have not worked and it’s an issue because they’re going to need them to produce in order to be a playoff team.
Some of the mistakes made were from those you don’t expect them from. Rasmus Dahlin’s error on the penalty kill in the second period in which he tried to jab the puck away from Aleksander Barkov while Mattias Samuelsson was already there defending him allowed Sam Reinhart to be alone in front of the net to score and make it 2-0.
Dahlin owned the mistake, and Ruff was burned up seeing both defensemen below the goal line on the penalty kill.
“We make those mistakes on the first kill; it was just a careless gamble that hurt us dearly,’ Ruff said. “I mean, against a really good player. So, got to clean up those mistakes.”
The more Ruff had time to answer our questions about the game and to go back over the errors the team made, the more it irked him to go over it. Can’t blame him either, a loss like that where they got yet another power play goal from Zucker and then Dahlin with a superb take to the net to score his first of the season to help make up for his earlier faux pas and get the fans back into the game, it was the thing they were looking for.
But a blown backcheck by Tage Thompson allowed Carter Verhaeghe to score on a rebound to give them the lead and Sam Bennett’s power play goal late in the third, after a penalty by Dahlin, iced it. Team leaders being the contributing factor on Panthers goals is probably what bothered Ruff more than anything.
With a few days between a back-to-back at home against the Islanders and on the road in Detroit, there’ll be plenty of time for him to drill home what they have to do better.