Being a fan of the Buffalo Sabres is an exercise in masochism. After sweeping a West Coast trip, the Sabres followed that up with a 1-0 loss to the Minnesota Wild, a 4-3 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks, and an ugly 3-0 shutout at the hands of the New York Islanders.
Coming into Tuesday’s game against the Colorado Avalanche, a rebound was desperately needed. Instead, the Sabres somehow turned a hot start into a loss that may have turned the fan base against them. Here are the most important takeaways from the 5-4 loss to the Avalanche.
This Was the Worst Loss of the Season
Let’s just get right into it: this was the worst loss of the season to date. It might be the worst loss in several seasons, but it gets hard to pick out specific disappointments in a vast ocean of disappointment, but this one is going to stand out for some time.
After jumping out to a 4-0 lead and dominating the first period, the team decided that it could pack up for the night. Up 4-1 heading into the third period, the Sabres took all of 7:39 to completely blow the lead. It is a microcosm of what this franchise has been about for the past 15 years.
Fans were booing well before Artturi Lehkonen put the Avalanche ahead for good with 4:22 remaining, and rightfully so. It’s hard to have faith in this franchise at this stage, and it will take a sizable winning streak to get the fans fully back on board.
TNT Is Back
Let’s look at one positive thing for at least a brief moment. Tage Thompson is out of his funk and back on the score sheet! He got the team on the board quickly, working hard to bury a rebound just over three minutes into the game. He followed it up with his 13th of the season just over three minutes later, a pretty weak backhander that should have been stopped.
Amidst all the negativity on the night, it underscores an ongoing problem with this version of the Sabres. Dylan Cozens has slowly started finding his game, but the struggles of he and Jack Quinn cannot be understated. All we’ve heard this season is how a move needs to be made sooner rather than later.
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As of now, this team is top heavy. They’ve been getting solid production out of the bottom lines relative to their expectations, but the bulk of the offense still comes from the trio of Thompson, Alex Tuch, and J.J. Peterka. Though they aren’t solely to blame for the Sabres being one of the worst teams in the NHL at creating high-danger chances, it’s hard not to at least look in the direction of Quinn and Cozens.
UPL Got Hung Out to Dry
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has quietly established himself as one of the 10 best goaltenders in the league. For about half of this game, he looked calm in the face of increasing pressure from a talented forward group.
Then the Sabres hung him out to dry. Bowen Byram and Owen Power both failed to do anything on a pair of rebound goals. They didn’t tie their man up, didn’t try to get a stick on the puck, and basically stood there while UPL flailed helplessly.
Luukkonen wasn’t perfect but it’s hard for any goaltender to be great in the face of the kind of pressure that came in the second half of the second period and the entirety of the third. It was an embarrassing performance by the team defensively, especially in the third period.
How to Move Forward
Where do the Sabres go from here? This is four consecutive losses, one of which a team can point to when asking, “Where did it all go wrong?” It is even worse because of how inept the franchise has been over the past 13 seasons.
Even if they come out and blow the doors off of the Winnipeg Jets, fans are too savvy to fall for it. We have seen hot stretches from this franchise in the past before ultimately falling back into the pattern of ineptitude we have all grown painfully used to. This loss was a back-breaker in every sense.
