COLUMBUS — The Buffalo Sabres 10-game winning streak is at an end. A 5-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets puts their franchise-tying record to bed with a thud.
The Blue Jackets jumped out to a 3-1 lead after the first period and never looked back and the Sabres weren’t able to get much of anything going either to slow things down. Columbus was quick everywhere and swarmed Buffalo all game long.
“We didn’t look like ourselves,” Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin said. “Puck decisions and it was some individual F-ups. This is our test. We need to bounce back here.”
Dahlin didn’t swear and he didn’t have to because it’s just another game. Sure, games like this happen and having their fan-invigorating streak come to an end in such a deflating way is a lot harder on the fans than it is on the players which is a good thing. Starting goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was equal parts snakebit and beaten.
Two goals went off sticks, the first a shot from distance that deflected off of Mattias Samuelsson’s twig and the other a straight deflection by Blue Jackets forward Dmitry Voronkov on a shot by Ivan Provorov in close that Luukkonen got just enough of to have it squeeze between his legs and leak over the goal line that made it 3-1. In between those goals was a Brendan Gaunce shorthanded breakaway from the opposite blue line after Tage Thompson fell down. Gaunce was able to beat Luukkonen.
“I feel like the third goal, more for me is as a goalie perspective, you got to play that better and I can’t let stuff kind of leak through you,” Luukkonen said. “But I got surprised how kind of he walked into the middle. I thought he’s going to come off the side, and he had more time than I expected and he kind of caught me flat-footed there. So, it was good shot by him, but just frustrating.”
Sometimes you can see plays like those happen and just know the game isn’t going to go the way any of the previous 10 had. The comebacks, the pushback, the seizure of control… none of that was there in Columbus on Saturday and that’s OK so long as it’s a one-off and not the start of something more sinister.
“That’s the most important part, it has nothing to do with winning 10 anymore,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “Now it’s about losing two in a row, about responding to the game we just played, going back in our building and playing a good hockey game.”
The importance of getting to the next game has been something that’s been stressed all season long, even outside of the 10-game streak. Mind you, it’s been ever-present during the streak, but early on this season while they were on the roller coaster before they stormed into the playoff conversation, stressing the vitality of focusing on the next game and not all the hoopla or doom and gloom that was the flavor of the moment proved instructive.
“I think that’s what contributed to a lot of our success,” Sabres forward Josh Norris said. “I don’t think we got too high and didn’t get too low. Winning feels great, there’s nothing better than that and you know you just want to have that feeling coming into the rink every day. So yeah, it starts next game to get back on track.”
The last time the Sabres went on a 10-game tear was during November of the 2018-2019 season. Dahlin and Thompson are the only two players from that team who experienced that run and what happened after that as the Sabres went from the top of the division to out of the playoff picture for good in two months’ time. It’s almost ancient history at this point and considering Dahlin was 18 and Thompson was 21 during that run it basically is, but that kind of time allows for experiences and learning and the actions are matching up with the words these days.
“We were just playing a solid team game,” Dahlin said. “We played really good defense, we weren’t giving up much, and we scored when it mattered, important times of games. Third periods were really good when we were able to shut the other team down. It was just a full-team effort. Now, like I said, we’ve got to find our game.”
A win streak like this only means something if they can respond to it ending the right way.
“It’s a good test for our little group here,” Norris said. “We had a great stretch and when you’re winning, things just seem easy and they’re rolling, you hit a little bit of adversity, and I have no doubt we’re going to respond though. There’s no panic in here and I think everybody feels the same way.”
* * * * * * * * *
Things weren’t perfect in the streak, of course.
The power play went on the fritz and hasn’t scored in six straight games going 0-for-14 in that time (they didn’t have a power play opportunity against New Jersey) and they went 0-for-5 against Columbus. Jason Zucker is likely to return to the lineup, perhaps as soon as against Vancouver on Tuesday, and he leads the team with five power play goals. Zucker kidded around with us after a recent practice about how they’d “cut out the dead weight” during the win streak (he was injured against Calgary, the last loss before the streak began), but a loss affords an opportunity for Ruff to change things up with the lineup.
As for who comes out in favor of Zucker bears watching because there’s not an obvious candidate unless it gives them a chance to rest Jordan Greenway who’s been getting load managed since returning to the lineup or swapping out Josh Dunne who’s played admirably on the fourth line. Peyton Krebs has been their ultimate utility player and if he slides to the fourth line to make room for Zucker, that makes sense as well.
It’s worth monitoring Michael Kesselring’s status with a lower-body injury that he sustained against Dallas that caused him to miss the final minutes of that game and held him out of Saturday’s game in Columbus. It’s been a haunted year for him and for a guy who’s never dealt with injuries before and has been so eager to make a big impression, it’s tough to see.