The Sabres completed a difficult day-and-a-half with a poorly played 5-2 loss to Utah that extended their winless streak to six games.
BUFFALO — The past 36 or so hours for the Buffalo Sabres have been pretty rough and after dropping a listless 5-2 game against Utah Hockey Club in which they were ahead 1-0 after the first period and didn’t score again until there was 2:20 left to go in the game, we’re left with the feeling that there is a lot of soul-searching to happen.
It’s the sixth straight loss for the Sabres and unlike the losses to Minnesota, Vancouver and Winnipeg during this streak, this loss better resembled ones they had against Colorado and the New York Islanders. There were countless basic mistakes, numerous times which rushes to the offensive zone went offside, another miserable second period performance, and in the end a sixth consecutive defeat.
After general manager Kevyn Adams’ press conference that went sideways on Friday, the team’s performance on Saturday did nothing to calm a fan base that’s just about sick of everything.
“I think you can guess how I’m feeling,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “My job is to get them out of it. That’s my job. That’s on me, to get them out of it, to stay with the process. Don’t deviate. Even just that small play, don’t go offside.
“I mean, this is mentally one of the weakest games I’ve seen, where you go offside that number of times. You don’t execute the small plays. So, if you look at the execution on two of their goals, we could have got it out of our zone. Getting it out of our zone has been a big deal. We’ve talked about it, get it out of your zone. We turned two pucks over on two goals that it’s on our tape, and it results in a goal. So, the execution part and us executing at a high level was not good. Just go back on the ice, practice the simple stuff that leads to the better plays.”
It was yet another game for the Sabres in which their opponent delivered a blow, in this case two goals 24 seconds apart early in the second period, that deeply rattled them to the point where mounting even a one-goal comeback would’ve been a titanic accomplishment. It was ugly and fans made it known it’s not up to snuff from anyone. Players were booed off the ice after the second period and at the end of the game. They called for Adams’ firing and some even questioned where owner Terry Pegula was.
It was a throwback to a different darker era of recent times and that much is not good for anyone. After six straight losses and a tumble down the standings, there aren’t many levers left to pull to fix what ails this group.
“I think we’ve actually, in that stretch, played some really good hockey,” Sabres forward Jason Zucker said. “Tonight wasn’t one of those games. I think we’ve played a couple of really good games that we lost, and it seems we get away from that game following it for whatever reason. I’m not thinking of all of them, but I think last game (Winnipeg) we played well, Minnesota we played well and we lose, but we can’t be about moral victories and playing well and being OK playing well and losing. We’re not playing well at all and we’re definitely not playing consistent enough and that’s on us in this room. We’ve got to fix it and, yeah, we will.”
More ahead from another head-shaking loss on home ice.
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If you spent your Saturday afternoon doing something other than taking in the Sabres game, you probably made the right choice. And if you managed to watch the first period before setting out for the day, you’re probably wondering what the hell happened now.
The first 20 minutes of the game were solid ones for the Sabres. Tyson Kozak scored his first NHL goal on a great play from Beck Malenstyn to set him up. Everything about the goal was a prime example of everything they should be doing more of. Malenstyn attacked with straight ahead speed with the puck while Kozak drove the middle lane. Malenstyn floated a perfect pass over Olli Määttä’s stick check to Kozak who zipped past Mikhail Sergachev to tip the puck by Karel Vejmelka.
It was a sweet reward for Kozak who had a goal called back after a goalie interference challenge on Thursday against Winnipeg. In all the gloom surrounding the team of late, Kozak’s been a bright spot by playing the way he always has — on his toes on the forecheck, getting in on the puck, and attacking the net when there are pucks going that way. It’s a pleasant sight to see guys who know their game stick to it, and it just so happens to be the exact thing the team he’s playing for needs more of.
Even though Buffalo was outshot by Utah 10-7 in the first period, the Sabres had the bulk of the high danger chances, and they had a couple of power plays as well. It was those chances that undid a lot of the good they did, however, because they generated one shot on goal in those two power plays and Utah got one glorious chance shorthanded when Nick Schmaltz was stopped on a breakaway by Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
Schmaltz got that opportunity because the Sabres were distracted trying to get back onside all the while Schmaltz snuck away behind them and got a pass to spring him. That moment was the warning about what was to come the rest of the way.
When the second period opened up, it didn’t take long for the game to get turned on its head. Utah tied the game 3:18 into the period when Michael Kesselring’s shot went post and in by Luukkonen. Seconds later, Utah was right back in the Sabres zone when Michael Carcone slipped past an attempted hip check by Connor Clifton that pushed Carcone out wide where he continued to attack the net. His attempt was met by Dennis Gilbert who, unfortunately, checked Carcone into Luukkonen and took him out of the play. The puck, meanwhile, went to Alex Kerfoot who got it to Sergachev up high who fired it into the open net to put them ahead 2-1 only 24 seconds after Kesselring’s goal.
With under a minute to go in what was a miserable period of hockey for the Sabres, Schmaltz finally got on the board to make it 3-1. He had a goal taken off the board in the first period after a successful goalie interference challenge by Ruff when Barrett Hayton made contact with Luukkonen in the crease. There was no such bail out this time, however, and the boos from the fans sent the home side off the ice after 40 minutes.
Buffalo was outshot 13-5 in the second and at 5-on-5, shot attempts went in Utah’s favor 18-11. The difference in shot quality was the most startling part of it as Utah had a 91.9 expected goal percentage. By that rate it’s a miracle it was only 3-1 and based on how the Sabres played overall that period they’re lucky it wasn’t 10-1. That poor period lessened their goal differential in second periods this season to minus-12. What’s sadder is Utah’s second period goal differential headed into today’s game was minus-14.
“I think we’re starting games really well and I don’t know if it’s a bit of complacency or what it is, but we’ve got to fix the second periods,” Sabres forward Jason Zucker said. “It seems like we come out in the third and get a bit of that fire back and start playing again. We’ve got to fix it.”
Ruff said the brutal second period play and poor execution therein is helping fuel the opposing offenses. Turnovers, misreads, making the wrong decisions with the puck, bad line changes—all of it—have happened throughout the season but the current losing streak is shining a spotlight on all of the mistakes.
If there was a word that was used repeatedly by everyone with the Sabres after the game, it was “execution” and in this case it was all about the lack thereof. Being more than a quarter of the way through the season and dealing with poor execution of some of the most basic things that happen in a game is deeply worrisome turn of events.
During Saturday’s game, the Sabres went offside repeatedly, killing any rushes into the zone or potential in-zone possession time to create. Puck decisions were often a struggle and even escaping the zone without any pressure applied lead to turnovers. One such puck fumble led to Utah’s first goal. Owen Power’s attempted pass out of the zone for Alex Tuch hit off the back of Kesselring’s skate and Barrett Hayton picked up the puck and reset the offense in-zone. One pass back to Kesselring for a slap shot and suddenly the game was tied.
It doesn’t take much for a game to turn on its head and in this case a small flub and some bad luck for Power turned into the tying goal. It’s not always a glaringly obvious play that swings momentum, sometimes it’s a simple play that goes awry and the opposing team takes full advantage.
“You look at the second goal, it should be our puck, we run into the referee,” Ruff said. “The fourth goal, we have a chance to make the game 3-2, lack of execution, now you’re on a long shift, you don’t get back, shift’s over a minute. Our puck play I thought was the worst I’ve seen.”
The fourth goal he’s referring to came in the third period after Dylan Cozens had an opportunity on a sudden odd-man rush. Cozens attempted to pass, had it knocked away, and it sprung Utah to take off the other way and score when Jack McBain buried a rebound of a Logan Cooley shot. At 3-1, hope is still there to come back, but at 4-1 and 2:11 into the period, it was time to call it a day, especially with how the Sabres were playing.
“You either shoot the puck or you make the play,” Ruff said. “The play’s there to be made, if you make the play or you shoot the puck. He’s at the end of his shift. So, now you have to come back tired. Benson has to come back tired. Peterka’s got to come back tired. And you saw what that looked like.”
Not capitalizing on odd man rushes is not a new development for the Sabres this season, but seeing it happen again shows how much overthinking and even a lack of confidence is out there. These decisions might happen because guys want to make the perfect play or defer to more veteran teammates or it’s something more worrisome psychologically. Whatever the issue is, it’s one that has to get solved immediately.
“I think it’s just execution,” Zucker said. “I think it’s getting back to our game, and I think about the execution piece of it. You can’t go offside eight times in a game, or I don’t know how many times it was today, but regardless we just need to get back to executing the way we know how to. It’s not a care thing, this room cares. This room has a lot of guys that care and want to do the right thing. It’s about doing it time and time again.”
It’s understandable if fans want to roll their eyes when reading that assessment, but Zucker is right. The players do care. Players want to win, and they want to help make wins happen however it is they need to do it. A handful of players stuck around the room after the game, lost in thought and soaking in yet another hard loss. Players all handle this kind of situation differently, but for the guys we do get to see their reactions to losses like this, it allows us to take their temperature via body language.
Seeing games being undone by basic errors or simple mistakes must be so much more frustrating. Not getting a puck in deep when under duress can happen, but it cannot be a repetitive problem that persists through the team. The same applies to offside plays or being able to handle a pass or knowing where your outlets are when handling the puck anywhere on the ice. This applies to shots not getting on net as well. Shots that miss often can be shotgun starts for a breakout for opponents. But getting the puck on goal and potentially creating rebounds and havoc? That’s good hockey when the cool-looking plays aren’t there to be made.
Watching this team make so many of these mistakes with varying amounts of regularity is troubling and when situations get tough, the mistakes piled up fast. That kind of spiraling points to them having a level of immaturity they’ve yet to get past. We know they’re a young, yet very experienced roster but no matter how much game experience guys in their late teens, early-20s have, natural immaturity will be present. It’s how panic set in against Colorado and it’s how things crumbled in the second period against Utah.
“I think feeling pressure. Can you handle pressure,” Ruff said. “I’ve talked about being comfortable. I mean, we had a 1-0 lead. We had a 1-0 lead. And we got a break on a goal that got called back that could have gone either way again. It was another one of those ones you’ve got to challenge, and you don’t really know. Making them play a 200-foot game. They’re a good team, don’t be surprised by how well they played. They’ve got some really mobile guys. I watched parts of the Vegas game where they dominated them. The Dallas game, there were parts of that game where they dominated them. We knew that they were a really good skating team, but that top two lines have a lot of skill. So, if you can’t execute the simple plays, you’re going to fuel some of their offense, and that’s what we did.”
This group will have to get more mature quickly to prevent more games like this one as well as the loss to Colorado because if there are changes to be made to address everything, they’ll be ones the players may not want to face.
If ever there was a time for Adams to help erase the memory of his Friday appearance and make headway into shaking up the lineup to get some life injected into it in the middle of a terrible losing streak, finding a trade to make might be the way to do it. No one’s getting fired unless things find a way to get actually terrible from this point on.
Ruff didn’t change the lineup on Saturday after how well they played Thursday night against Winnipeg. That was understandable, but now the question is how will it change in a have-to-win game against Detroit on Monday? It’s possible Jordan Greenway will be ready to go, Ruff said Saturday morning he’s closer to returning than defenseman Mattias Samuelsson, but he added that Greenway is really close. I’d bank on seeing him against the Red Wings.