Before Victor Olofsson’s penalty shot goal, the Sabres didn’t look very good. After it, they did. Unfortunately, it was their only goal in a 2-1 loss to Nashville.
BUFFALO — The problem with the past few Buffalo Sabres games is that they’ve looked a bit too familiar.
The Sabres’ 2-1 loss to Nashville at home on Sunday night resembled one we’ve watched in recent years with this still very young, albeit more experienced, team.
The facts of the Sabres situation are all the things fans want to hear the absolute least. They’re young, they’re going to make mistakes. They’re injured, and even more so now after Alex Tuch appeared to hurt his hamstring in the third period Sunday night, and digging into their even younger, even less-experienced depth for help. They’re doing good things, but the bad have outweighed them of late and there are still some issues that have persisted (like getting off to slow starts in games).
“I feel like right now it’s like it’s two different teams out there,” Dylan Cozens said. “We play a completely different way when we’re down and that’s how we need to play right off the bat. We need to play like we’re desperate right off the bat before we get down two goals because it’s tough to come back from that. We’ve been doing that a lot lately, getting down early. We just need to have better starts.”
The question of whether they’re a bad or good team is leading to more people answering that they’re bad and the results, even occasionally in wins, are leading to negativity piling up. Inconsistency is a real bastard to deal with and it’s made things much more difficult for the Sabres as they try to get things right. One of the side effects of inconsistency is a lack of confidence that shines through when the score line goes against them. Addressing that is one of the things the team is trying to get settled.
“You work to bring clarity of and bring a vision,” Sabres coach Don Granato said. “In one sense, one way through video tape. Another, just explicitly show them situations that—what they look like and what they can do better and what they’re capable of, which they’re capable of more. But clarity. I mean, this is a situation, we’ve been in lots of situations like this over the past couple years. From two years ago. And you’re in these and you need to bring clarity to them and a vision to them. Obviously, through one-on-one, through team—five guys playing together. And you know, we will. We’re battling a lot of different things right now. But we will.”
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The Sabres have not played all that well of late dropping decisions on the road in St. Louis and Carolina. There was the 6-4 loss to the Blues in which Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and the team’s defense struggled even though the Sabres greatly outplayed the hosts. That was followed days later by a rough loss on Saturday night in Carolina in which the Hurricanes continued to haunt the Sabres in Raleigh to the tune of a 6-2 defeat.
Against St. Louis, they were down 3-0 in the first 11 minutes of the game but rallied back into the second period to eventually draw even at 3-3 with goals from Rasmus Dahlin, Zach Benson, and Peyton Krebs. The high of tying the game up should’ve been good enough to get things back to normal, but just over three minutes later, Kevin Hayes and Brayden Schenn scored 24 seconds apart to make it a two-goal lead again thanks to defensive breakdowns and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen not having his best night.
The Sabres created bucket loads of chances and greatly outshot the Blues, but still came up on the short end of the decision. Those games will happen and they’re unfortunate when they do, it’s just the kind of game the Sabres didn’t need right now, especially after their thrilling 5-1 win in New York against the Rangers.
The loss to Carolina was just a classic ass-kicking at the hands of the Hurricanes. They were down 2-0 after one and 5-0 after two and those game stories were basically written and finished during second intermission.
But Sunday night’s defeat to Nashville showed some of what’s made life so hard for Buffalo this season. The emotional highs and lows of goals for and against dictate the flow of play so easily.
Momentum can be real but how the Sabres played after the goals from Filip Forsberg and Yakov Trenin 1:44 apart in the first period showed a team that got down on itself too easily and too quickly. The “oh no, not again” feeling was noticeable in their play. There was a 180-degree difference in that after Victor Olofsson’s penalty shot goal in the second period that sent the Sabres flying from that point on to push for a tying goal that never came, much in part due to Juuse Saros’s superb play in goal.
Granato has always said he wants his players to be able to feel the emotions of what it means to be under pressure and to be in playoff races, but seeing emotion dictate the flow of play the way it has while they’ve struggled to find positive consistency is something to get figured out.
“We’re going to be putting in front of them as much as they can see and feel, whether it’s visual or whether it’s one-on-one conversation, to try and see the things you should focus on, where you limit worry, limit concern, limit feeling pressure that’s perceived pressure that’s affecting actual performance,” Granato said. “So, yeah, there’s things you do, and we’ll continue to do that as we have in the past in these situations.
“It’s a new level. You know, we got to a certain plateau, you can’t stay there. You’re gonna slip off if you try to stay there. I think for the early part of the season we tried to stay there and hang onto last year a little bit. You can’t hang onto it. You’ve got to find ways to be better, and we’re experiencing that right now.”
Some thoughts
— Erik Johnson was scratched against Nashville and replaced by Ryan Johnson who sat out against Carolina. Granato said before the game this is part of how they’re going to manage games with the defense and it’s for the best to do that. Connor Clifton struggled mightily against Nashville, however, and he was cycled out of the lineup against St. Louis.
Ryan Johnson’s arrival has made things much busier in how they manage the blue line, no doubt, but with Erik Johnson struggling outside of his PK work (well, sometimes) and Clifton still fighting it a bit to gain consistency, how they figure out the blue line will be something to watch.
During the game, the Sabres switched up their standard pairs and we got to see Henri Jokiharju with Rasmus Dahlin a fair bit through the second period. It’s not that Dahlin and Mattias Samuelsson struggled together, but he did have a bit more success possession-wise with Jokiharju. It bears watching if it’ll be a change that stays or was a mid-game call to change up the pace. The defense pairs didn’t exactly always stay standard throughout.
— I get that Dylan Cozens earned a lot of attention after the Carolina loss for saying the team played soft and they needed a little more “FU” in their game, but he wasn’t necessarily wrong.
The part about using the word “soft” got everyone’s attention and that’s a fascinating word in hockey. When used by anyone it sends a very direct message and can double as an insult. A player using it about their own team gets the room’s attention. Any player or coach using that word to describe an opponent is asking for a line brawl next time they play them.
A coach using it about their own team is a coach that might not have much time left behind the bench of that team. Phil Housley infamously used that term to describe the Sabres play after a loss to Nashville and Housley was fired a few weeks later at the end of the season.
Cozens using it sent a message to the group and also put the onus on himself as well to play harder and more committed to the effort. It’s not just about playing physically and hitting opponents, it’s about being on top of the play. Cozens had a great game and if not for Saros he probably pots a couple of goals. He talked the talk and he walked the walk. Still, talk is cheap when there are still losses at the end of the night and he’s aware of that, too.
“I think it’s just playing with that desperation right off the bat,” Cozens said. “Once we get down, we kick it into an extra gear and push a little harder and we play fearless like we have nothing to lose because we’re already down. That’s kind of how we need to play right off the start. I think once we get one of those games when we feel like we’re rolling, we’ll get our swagger back.”
— Tuch’s injury is a tough blow, but the hope is it won’t be too serious. A hockey player with a hamstring injury is harsh. The Sabres are clearly a better team with him in the lineup and if he’s out for an extended period, that would likely mean Jiri Kulich returns. It should also mean Kevyn Adams gets the phones working a bit harder as well.
Granato said there would be updates on the injuries to Tuch and Jordan Greenway (who left Saturday’s game against Carolina and did not play Sunday) as well as to Tage Thompson and Zemgus Girgensons on Monday. The team isn’t slated to practice on Monday, and they’ll host the Red Wings in a vital intra-division showdown Tuesday.
There’s no doubt the team’s struggles recently have Thompson and Girgensons champing at the bit to get back sooner than later, but any kind of good news would be welcome right now. At the very least establishing a timetable for return sets a target for everyone.