The Buffalo Sabres dropped a 5-2 decision to the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday after they entered the third period with a 2-1 lead.
BUFFALO — A lot might get made of how the Buffalo Sabres’ 5-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday night was their first loss when leading after two periods in an eternity, but if anything proved to be true it’s that a one-goal lead against one of the best teams in the NHL is never at all safe.
The Sabres showed a lot of what’s made them good since the start of the new year. There was a brilliant power play goal from JJ Peterka after each player on the ice touched the puck before he teed up a one-timer on a pass from Kyle Okposo.
For the second night in a row, Eric Robinson played outstanding in his role and was rewarded with a goal after a great set of plays from Zemgus Girgensons and Peyton Krebs.
Even Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen played well in making a start in back-to-back nights for the first time since he was with the Rochester Americans. Unfortunately, bad luck and misfortune tag-teamed him on the first two goals he gave up to Nino Niederreiter and Josh Morrissey and Morgan Barron dogpiled with a laser of a shot past him. The latter two of those goals coming in a four-goal third period for Winnipeg.
It just wasn’t their night.
“You either find a way to fight through it or find a way to be more efficient,” Sabres coach Don Granato said. “I don’t think we pressured pucks enough. And when we didn’t, we weren’t smart enough filling the right areas. We were on occasion early and throughout the game, but the last 10 minutes, obviously the dam broke there. In the sense of we lost playing efficient.”
Wrapping up a night which turned into yet another missed opportunity for the Sabres.
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Let’s not dance around things tonight, we’ve been down a road like this a few times this season. The difference this time is the number of games left to go are dwindling and the opportunities to climb into the playoff race are slipping through their fingers.
A win Sunday against Winnipeg would’ve ultimately had the Sabres eight points out of the wild card. Instead, they’ll stay 10 points out despite watching New Jersey, Washington, and Pittsburgh all drop games on the same night. Hopes and expectations have gotten in the way all year, what’s another night, right?
“I don’t know if we were playing not to lose instead of trying to just go out there and play in the offensive zone and play defense by playing offense,” Robinson said. “It just felt like we were trying to hold onto it. You can’t do that against good teams.”
Fatigue was mentioned by Granato after the game, but that was more a statement of fact than it was an excuse. After all, the Jets played in Raleigh on Saturday and traveled to Buffalo to play Sunday, they had fatigue themselves. But in games like this momentum swings can carry a team and Winnipeg got their swing in the third period for the second straight game. They put five goals on the Hurricanes on Saturday and four against Buffalo. Captain Obvious over here says, “They’re very good.”
“There’s a lot of fight in this group,” Jets coach Rick Bowness said. “Again, the third periods in the three games are totally different. We weren’t that happy in Dallas but we knew yesterday afternoon in Carolina we were playing well. Stay with it. And the same as tonight. I know we’re down 2-1 but we were playing really well. We were playing fast, we were creating turnovers, we were creating chances. Just stay in the fight.”
It’s a loss for Buffalo that had the players we saw in the room afterwards pissed off. Some fans like to think the reality of how the season has gone never sinks in on the guys playing the game. Never mind the contortions one has to twist themselves into to actually believe such a thing, but knowing full well how high the hopes were to begin the year and how they’ve rallied in the second half, loss like the one on Sunday hit even harder because reality is a real bastard like that.
Losing to good teams happens though, especially when your own team isn’t as good. And truth be told, despite having the lead, the Sabres weren’t too good. The fancy stats were deeply stacked against them in the first and third periods and turnovers and misplays led to their three goals with the net occupied.
The Sabres have a road back-to-back this week in Toronto and Nashville and won’t skate on trade deadline day on Friday before hosting Edmonton next Saturday afternoon. It’s going to be a fascinating week ahead and one that may come with a lot of changes.
The first of those changes should be Erik Johnson being traded.
Johnson was officially held out of Sunday’s game for trade-related reasons and the weird scenario that unfolded in Sunrise last week may have been the last time we see him in a Sabres uniform at this rate. The one caveat here is how much Johnson struggled this season. Sabres GM Kevyn Adams must know he’s not going to get a juicy return for him, but the question is whether or not there’s a market for him given how he’s played and his age. It’s unfortunate because Johnson is one of the really good guys in the game and seeing him struggle at times here has been tough. But whether there’ll be more deals to be done is up in the air.