Buffalo falter at home again to a team ‘worse’ than them

Score: Buffalo Sabres 2-6 Calgary Flames
Shots: BUF 30-35 CAL

Buffalo Sabres Goals: Samuelsson (4), Thompson (10)
Calgary Flames Goals: Andersson (5), Farabee (3), Frost (4), Backlund (4), Farabee (4), Coronato (7)

Minus 1: Nope, that’s not it

The Sabres were in many ways the complete opposite of the Buffalo side that took to the ice just a couple of nights ago to dominate the Edmonton Oilers. Where they had control against McDavid & Co., tonight they were scatterbrained. Where they skated and played hard against the Oil, tonight they just went out there assuming they were going to beat the Flames by just showing up.

They were outplayed in the first period, and gave up two silly goals too. Colten Ellis had made a save from Kevin Bahl on the blue line, and then as Mattias Samuelsson skated across him the defenseman inexplicably lost control of the puck to hand Rasmus Andersson one of the easiest goals he’s had in his career.

Then Nazem Kadri put the puck on a plate in the blue ice for Joel Farabee to tip in past Ellis while Owen Power, Jacob Bryson and Ryan McLeod watched.

The Sabres were outshot 11-5, with Flames holding a 3-0 edge on high danger chances as well, with just 16.86% of xGF% against.. the team with the worst record in the NHL. Not that the Sabres are that much ahead of them.

Plus 1: Good comeback period

That was easily the worst period of hockey the Sabres played since that talking-to they got on the ice in Detroit recently. They bounced back in the second by starting to skate again and chasing the puck.

Beck Malenstyn created the Sabres first of the game by hounding the puck carrier on the forecheck, winning the puck down deep where Samuelsson made amends for his earlier by burying the puck behind back up ‘tender Devin Cooley.

In an interesting wrinkle aimed to let Tage Thompson uncork his howitzer slapshot with more freedom, Sammy went deeper into the faceoff circle, received a cross-ice pass from Rasmus Dahlin and fed Tage who hammered one into the net off the ironwork, 2-2.

The Flames had fallen apart last night in the third period against the Chicago Blackhawks, letting in three goals in a 5-2 loss. With Calgary playing against the Sabres on the second night of a back-to-back, surely Buffalo would stay in the ascendancy and win this one?

Minus 2: Things Fall Apart, Catastrophically

The last recap I wrote was that awful defeat at the Utah Mammoth. I kept the same header for the third paragraph as that game, because it was the same resulting cave-in when they game was there for the taking if they just kept working.

Two minutes into the period Bryson got caught up the ice and as Jonathan Huberdeau bore down the Sabres right, Power kept backing off and backing off until he was stepping on Ellis’ heels, allowing Morgan Frost to tap-in another pass through the blue ice.

Now the Sabres were playing catch-up, and then the shooting-in-the-foot continued. Alex Tuch failed to clear the zone, then Bowen Byram and Conor Timmins contrived to lose the puck in front of Ellis. Andersson put in a point shot that the goalie saved, but the rebound spilled to Mikael Backlund to tuck in past the unsighted Ellis.

With a mountain to climb in front of a good-sized crowd at the KeyBank Center, Buffalo proceeded to crumble. With less than half the third period played they were soon down 5-2 to Farabee’s second of the game, a shot from the slot beating Ellis after what looked a lot like a hooking on Thompson going uncalled.

Game was pretty much over at that point, with a strange goal making it six goals on the night for the visitors. Timmins had blocked Matt Coronato’s slapshot from in close, but the puck ballooned into the air, bounced off the glass and went in off Ellis’ stick as he was trying to track the puck. Last season Buffalo had made it almost a tradition that they would bag half a dozen when wearing the black and reds, that was sadly overturned tonight in a 6-2 dismantling.

Final Thoughts

Just a fortnight ago the Sabres had come off five consecutive overtime games (with losses in four) and were facing the then-worst St Louis Rams at home. That game Buffalo accomplished the proverbial “sh*tting the bed” by getting shutout at home by one of the worst goalies in the league in a listless 3-0 defeat.

With the now-worst Calgary Flames visiting after being hammered last night by the Hawks, and boosted by an excellent pair of wins against the Detroit Red Wings and the Oilers, this was the chance for the Sabres to show they had truly turned a corner.

Once again, when the rubber met the road, the Sabres just did not show up. It’s hard to pick out any particular villains after a loss of this nature when just everyone was off, but it was telling that in the post-game comments Samuelsson noted “Maybe too many guys are passengers”, and Thompson followed up with “We get too high on ourselves. We think we’re better than we are.”

This is not a serious hockey team right now. And if the club’s leadership is not doing something about it, then they are not a serious hockey outfit either.

Next up will be the free-scoring Blackhawks led by the rampant Connor Bedard (13G, 16A, 29pts – 4th in the league) on Friday night at what should be a packed KBC with the Thanksgiving holiday around the corner.