In a game in a situation where the Buffalo Sabres essentially had to win out to keep any semblance of hope for the playoffs alive, Ottawa got out to a 5-0 lead and never looked back in a 6-2 win.
BUFFALO — In a season that’s been loaded with frustration for just about everyone around the Buffalo Sabres, the one thing we’ve been spared is an outright stink bomb of a game.
Sure, there have been some rough periods and tough endings, but a knock-down, drag-out complete turd? Not at all. That was, at least, until the first 20 minutes against Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night when the Senators raced out to a 4-0 lead 8:49 into the game and chased starter Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and tacked on a fifth goal with 49 seconds to go in the period to take a 5-0 lead into the intermission and gave the already angst-filled fans a chance to let it all out booing the team to the locker room.
Given the Sabres were in a position where they almost had to win out to have a fighting chance to make the playoffs, a long shot indeed as it was, coming out like that in the first 20 minutes of the first game of a five-game homestand that was set to either be the start of an improbable run to the finish or the coda to a season filled with unfulfilled hope and expectations, that was how it began.
“I thought, our season’s on the line, we got a team we played three other times already, right, to finish the season series,” Sabres defenseman Connor Clifton said. “They came in and they gave it to us, and we had no answer. Obviously, you give up five, that was that. We, obviously, have two in the second and we try to give a push, and then they start clearing pucks, dumping it in and making it hard on us getting to their net. I think, yeah, that game, the first period, that was it.”
More from an inexplicable game just ahead…
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It’s hard to not fall into the same old tropes of seasons past watching a game play out like the one Wednesday night did. Too much of it reminded people of games they’ve watched 100 times before in seasons that ended much worse off but somehow not as upsettingly disappointing as this one is turning out to be.
That the team was booed vociferously off the ice after the first period was well-earned. They were caught flat-footed often, they were punished for puck-watching on a few instances, and they left the guy who’s been most responsible for them even being this close to the playoff race to begin with, Luukkonen, hung out to dry time and time again for the 8:49 he played.
“That was probably the worst part,” Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin said. “We let him down. He’s been saving us for a long time now. That’s not OK from our side.”
While a similar situation played out in their 8-3 loss to Edmonton last week, watching the Sabres just stop playing after they were unable to score on a third period power play down 5-3 while the Oilers took advantage of that and added three more goals was different. Still extremely not good on anyone, but it was different and almost understandable in those circumstances.
But those circumstances were just like what they had coming into Wednesday night’s game. They had to win to keep the dream alive and losing meant they were that much closer to being officially, mathematically eliminated. But it’s different to be gutted by being unable to take advantage of a power play where the pressure of the game could’ve been flipped and psychologically sag from that. Coming out and getting your doors blown off on home ice after being away for a week and a half?
Inexcusable.
“Simple things we let slip,” Sabres coach Don Granato said. “Simple details, starting with puck battles. We lost battles early. On retrieved pucks, we had body position and lost the battle. Lost some battles to the net…
“You’re disappointed. Just the simple, simple things that would be routine execution were not. Obviously, that’s frustrating.”
It’s felt like the Sabres had been dodging false deaths to their season for a few weeks now. It was the classic Corleone situation where right when you think they’re out, they pulled you right back in. Part of that was their own play but the rest fell upon their other playoff wannabes also coming apart down the stretch. But after kicking off their five-game road trip with a tough 4-1 loss in Detroit and winding up going 2-3-0 on that trip, a faint sliver of hope still lingered. Even Granato on Tuesday said, “It’s still one game at a time. You’re never out until you’re out.” It’s a virtual Yogi-ism, but it showed that neither he nor the players have given up on that improbable hope.
Now? Reality is cruel.
“Even if they get an early goal, we’ve just got to keep doing the right things,” Dahlin said. “We were trying to come back quick by doing not good stuff. That’s a learning (moment) for us.”
Bad starts were the Sabres’ M.O. for most of the season and giving up the first goal was the norm. One goal 2:37 into the game completely unwound everyone. Whether it was because they were on home ice where they’ve tended to get tighter in general or it was the weight of the situation or it was all of it, the result was it got out of hand really fast and now the playoff dream is all but officially dead.
What bears watching from this point on, particularly with the next four games at home, is how the team from Kevyn Adams all the way down to the coaches and players handles all of this.
The fan base, which was already deeply disgruntled, now are nearly unified in wanting heads to roll. Granato was stolid in trying to analyze such a miserable performance so as to not tip his own emotional hand, but it’s clear this is eating him up to no end and now the pressure on management to make a move regarding his position is sky-high. Even the players are at a bit of a loss for how to answer for losses like this, although a loss like this one hasn’t happened all season. It just happened at the worst possible time.
We’ll find out very clearly now until the end of the season and perhaps into the offseason what management felt was their actual expectation for this season was and how much credence they’ll give to the extenuating circumstances around the team (injuries and such) for how they decide what happens next. Words and actions haven’t always matched up, but they’ll have to show some part of their hand in reality in the weeks to come. If the fans expectations were also management’s expectations for this season, tough days will be ahead. If not…the noise from outside that’s already been loud and growing into a cacophony will be completely impossible to ignore.