The Sabres’ 6-5 overtime loss to the Penguins featured a couple of legendary foes making it a night to remember in Pittsburgh.
PITTSBURGH — What a strange, exciting (complimentary), exhilarating game this was for the Pittsburgh Penguins. For the Buffalo Sabres it was also exciting (derogatory), maddening, and ultimately, disappointing.
The Sabres dropped a back-and-forth game 6-5 in overtime in which they had leads of 3-1 and 5-4. They also trailed 4-3 at one point early in the third period as well.
The Sabres chased Penguins starting goalie Tristan Jarry when they scored three goals on their first five shots in the first period and weren’t able to breakthrough backup Joel Blomqvist until midway through the third period.
They also blew an early 3-1 advantage by playing the sort of hockey we watched them play in Prague in which turnovers, penalties and odd-man rushes contributed to the Penguins’ goal rush that included Evgeni Malkin scoring his 500th career goal.
Even though there were some good things to take away from the game—namely J-J Peterka’s two goals in his first game back from a concussion—the sour turns throughout it that included allowing the tying goal with 46 seconds left in the third and a questionable tripping call against Tage Thompson in overtime that gave Pittsburgh the 4-on-3 they used to win the game on Sidney Crosby’s first goal of the year in a game in which he had three points and eclipsed the 1,600 mark for his career.
Old names from the past that perpetually haunted Buffalo doing it all over again in the current day. Sometimes the ghosts never go away.
More on a tough loss with a lot of layers to it ahead.
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Let’s start with some lightness and with how well Peterka played in his return to action. He missed two games with a concussion and thanks to the spread-out schedule after returning from Europe, it limited the number of games he had to miss.
He returned to the top line with Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch and had an immediate impact with two goals. What’s wild is he could’ve had four had he scored on a pair of second period breakaways Blomqvist stopped. He was quick, he was dangerous, he was decisive and provided a much-needed offensive infusion.
“I thought JJ was awesome,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “You look at it, he scored two goals, he had two breakaways, he hit the post on one breakaway. He was dynamic all night for me. I (felt) a little worried about throwing him in, but we got a heck of a game out of him.”
The Sabres had a lot of pace early on in the game and again later on as they rode the emotional highs of playing the kind of game they want to. They played quick, they put the Penguins on their heels, and they forced them to give up the puck either by dump-ins or turnovers. You couldn’t have asked for a better start to the game and the response they had in the third to tie it and take the lead was a carbon copy of that. Unfortunately, the time in between those moments and again later as they tried to hold onto a 5-4 lead, things changed.
“I thought our puck management in the second period was terrible,” Ruff said. “You know they were going to press. We played too much one-on-one hockey, and every time we played one-on-one hockey, or you turn it over around the top of the circle, you’re basically breaking them out. We did that probably four or five times in the second. That really hurt us.”
There were missteps and blown assignments and just flat-out poor plays made by various players. Dylan Cozens and Jack Quinn fought it again with tough plays outweighing anything positive. Those sorts of plays left the Sabres defense hung out to dry on occasion which in turn made them look like they blew an assignment. When Ruff talks about the one-on-one plays that broke down their play and made the systems look sketchy, it’s a chain reaction of events.
Even some guys who have played very well to start the season had some hiccups and that will happen throughout a season. No one plays a perfect game for all 82 games, but if others are helping to add to the woes, it snowballs and for a good chunk of the second and early third periods, that’s what happened.
When Malkin scored his 500th career goal from the seat of his pants to beat Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, the emotional swing of that for the Penguins and Sabres was more than evident. The Pens were flying, and the Sabres were mired in a deep malaise. Nothing clicked for them and the game seemed destined to end with the Penguins cruising to victory.
That’s when Peterka scored his second of the game seemingly out of the blue and that tying effort with 9:44 to go in the third served to be a jolt for Buffalo. It was 40 seconds later that Ryan McLeod sniped a shot from the top of the circle past Blomqvist for his first of the season and a 5-4 Sabres lead. Buffalo went from death’s door to being on top in a flash with minutes to play.
In a cruelly ironic twist, the Sabres’ inability to get games to overtime to just grab at least a point was met head-on when the lead evaporated with less than a minute to go after Rickard Rakell poked home a rebound of a Malkin shot past Luukkonen that tied it.
Luukkonen had a tough game despite making 37 saves. Drew O’Connor’s second period tally on a 2-on-1 beat Luukkonen tight to the short side where there was not much room for a puck to get past him and yet it did. Malkin’s shot late in the third was one that was struck incredibly hard and with the intent to cause a mess around the net. Mission accomplished because Luukkonen couldn’t corral it and Rakell and Bryan Rust both tried to stuff it home, ultimately with Rakell winning out.
In overtime, Thompson was busted on a tripping call that was a little more than debatable as he battled Malkin along the wall. Their legs got tied up and Malkin fell to the ice. Thompson was called for tripping and when the Penguins can put Malkin, Crosby, Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson out for a 4-on-3 advantage, the odds weighed heavily in their favor to score. And they did when Karlsson found Crosby on the back post for a tap in to beat Luukkonen. Not much can be done about that other than not take a penalty against Pittsburgh, especially in overtime.
There were a few iffy calls in the game and some others that went uncalled that were head-scratchers, but that’s what can happen in the league sometimes. It usually evens out in the end but that provides no solace in the moment while the other team is celebrating.
“It would be easy to blame the refs, but at the same time, we did a lot of things to hurt ourselves in that game,” Thompson said. “Obviously, it’s a call we probably would have liked to have back, just going in there trying to hit him and he tries to jump out of the way and feel like that play happens at least once a shift. But it is what it is. Obviously it happens. There’s a lot of other things we could have done throughout the game, though, to prevent it even going into overtime. So, at the end of the day, we kind of did it to ourselves.”
Thursday is another day and a game in Columbus against the Blue Jackets. Expect Devon Levi to get the start and if he has another strong one, the calls from fans to have him start more often will get loud. Perhaps we’ll see Jiri Kulich back in the lineup as well. Zach Benson played just over 10 minutes against the Penguins, and he had a (questionable) hooking penalty that led to Malkin’s goal in the third.
On a night where it became one to laud a pair of Pittsburgh’s future hall of famers, it was a throwback to when Malkin and Crosby would bedevil the Sabres by just finding ways to not just win, but to do it themselves. It’s a loss that will stick in the Sabres’ collective craws, but they’ll get the chance to flush it away Thursday night at Nationwide Arena.