There have been better performances than the Sabres’ effort in a 4-3 loss on Thursday to Calgary. Fortunately for them, Erik Johnson’s seen it all before.
BUFFALO — There’s a version of Buffalo Sabres hockey to be played this season, and ideally many times over, that leads to wins and vaulting up the standings. Thursday night’s effort against the Calgary Flames was decidedly not it.
The Sabres dropped a 4-3 decision in a game that was loose, speedy, physical, and erratic on both ends of the ice for both teams. In an 82-game season, these games happen and they’re frustrating, but when it occurs in Game 4 of a season that has as much hope and hype attached to it as this Sabres season does, it leads to surliness in the fan base.
To be fair, losses do that no matter what whether a team is great or awful, but still. There’s a kind of hockey that’s been expected of this group and it hasn’t happened with regularity.
“We created our own mess tonight,” Sabres coach Don Granato said. “We were sloppy.”
Granato elaborated on that point quite a bit but it wasn’t really necessary. A one-word descriptor was all this game needed. There were other assessments that hit it on the nose, however.
“We’re going to be able to score goals like that most of the year, but until we have a commitment to team defense, we won’t accomplish much,” Sabres defenseman Erik Johnson said.
Johnson might be one of the newest guys in town, but he was brought in to be a leader for guys on the blue line and in turn the rest of the room. Breaking down the rest of the game with numbers or video/GIFs will drill home how messy it was, but even though the time for learning is over for the Sabres and the time for applying what’s been learned consistently is at hand, sometimes it takes the view of a veteran who’s seen it all to make it make sense.
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After Johnson’s many seasons with the St. Louis Blues and Colorado Avalanche, his arrival in Buffalo as a mentor or on-ice and off-ice coach of sorts has already had an immediate impact. On the ice, he got his first goal of the season, a wrister from near the half-wall that sailed over the glove of Dan Vladar in the first period. But off the ice after a tough defeat in which many of the Sabres wounds were self-inflicted, Johnson laid it out clear what it takes to become a consistent team for the young group.
The Sabres and Flames were tied 2-2 late in the second period in a game which they were trading shots and chances. You can live with that when you’re able to wrest momentum away consistently and force the opponents back on their own heels for a while. Each time, Calgary got a lead, the Sabres punched back shortly afterwards to knot it up again. But late in the second, things started to slip.
“We’re tied 2-2 with a minute left in the second, we give up a breakaway, we give up an odd-man rush, and then we give up a 4-on-2 two minutes into the third,” Johnson recounted. “We won’t win in the long run like that, and that takes a five-man commitment on the ice to do it right. Sometimes that comes with going through those lumps and sometimes in order to have success you’ve got to earn those mistakes. But those are things we can clean up no problem, it’s just the mindset to committing to do that.”
Something that’s forgotten persistently when watching hockey, specifically your favorite hockey team, is that mistakes can and will happen and sometimes at the most inopportune moments of the game. Teams will never play a 100 percent perfect game, but if the mistakes can be limited to low-danger situations or areas of the ice, then that’s the best outcome.
Of course, that too is almost impossible as guys are bound to, for example, make a mistake of passion and try to extend a long shift to continue generating scoring chances.
This is what led to Blake Coleman’s goal that gave Calgary a 3-2 lead 1:52 into the third period. It occurred on the 4-on-2 Johnson mentioned. The line of Casey Mittelstadt, Jordan Greenway, and Zach Benson kept the Flames hemmed into their end of the ice for a long stretch to start the period, but when Benson attempted to cut to the middle of the zone and look for a pass, but Flames defenseman Dennis Gilbert knocked him down and stole the puck. That sprung the Flames down the ice where Gilbert got it to Matt Coronato who found Coleman by his lonesome at the circle to tee one up. You can watch the play here.
It’s a puck that has to get in deep to the corner, but an already tired Benson ran out of space quickly and the Flames were able to turn and burn away. It’s unfortunate, but a mistake borne from effort and trying to do a little too much when gassed. He’s 18 and you can live with a learning moment like that while also not liking the result.
Speaking of young guys having a tough night, let’s discuss Devon Levi for a moment.
Levi made his fourth straight start in the Sabres fourth game of the season. Whether it was our lying eyes or not, he played like a guy who might just need a few days to get his legs back under him.
Levi was uncharacteristically over-aggressive on plays. He came well out to challenge Calgary shooters who ultimately held the puck a breath longer than anticipated which got Levi out of position a bit and turned things into a scramble.
Granato was quick to point out that the first couple goals involved some bad luck and that’s true, too. Although by my own eyes it seems there are a lot of rebounds being kicked or punched away by Levi. Rebounds you can live with when they’re sent into non-dangerous areas of the ice, but it’ll do a number on a fan’s heart, nonetheless.
There was also the shot from beyond center ice (NHL play-by-play listed as being from 134 feet away) from Flames defenseman Mackenzie Weegar that probably got past Levi, but replay was inconclusive, and it was ruled no-goal on the ice. Just be thankful there’s no puck technology for goals, right?
The usual calmness we’ve gotten to see from Levi wasn’t there and the game of “chicken or egg” comes into play here, too. Was Levi not calm because the play in front of him was a bit haphazard or was the play in front of Levi like that because he wasn’t himself? Six of one and half-dozen of the other at fault here. Still, Levi still made a few dynamite saves and hanging all of the blame for the loss on him is definitely unfair.
That said, Eric Comrie or Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen should get a start soon and perhaps letting Comrie get another crack at the Islanders on Saturday, who he shut out last season in Elmont, might be in order. If not, one of the backups will assuredly play Monday or Tuesday when the Sabres have back-to-back games at home against Montréal and at Ottawa.
On the good news front, the power play could be a lot of fun again this year. They finally got some full power plays on Thursday and the movement and passing they’re using to free up shooting lanes looks good. I asked Granato about this specific thing after morning skate and he was quick to say they haven’t had any full looks necessarily because there haven’t been many penalties called against opponents and any of the power plays they’ve had have been mostly abbreviated. That changed against Calgary and Tage Thompson did his thing burying one.
The biggest issue the power play had last season was it got static in its movement which made them very predictable. It led to Thompson being shadowed by two defenders, one direct and the other indirect and the indirect shadow stayed high near Dahlin because he was the other most likely shooter.
What they’ve done now is bring the other flanker off the wall out high while the screener slips down low and the bumper player becomes a part-time bumper/part-time screener. It’s a very interesting way to address things while also creating more passing lanes and opportunities while also forcing opponents to respect more than the puck carrier and the designated shooter (Tage in this case). They started doing this in preseason and it’s carried into the regular season and I’m eager to see more of it because it seems like a fun way to keep opposing PKs legs moving and wearing them out.