The Buffalo Sabres are struggling once again. After getting slightly hot, they have now lost four straight, including a 6-2 drubbing on home ice against the lowly San Jose Sharks. Going on the road to play the Tampa Bay Lightning did not exactly inspire high hopes for a big win.
The Sabres looked lively for much of the game, but it ultimately wasn’t enough. They dropped a close 6-5 decision to the Lightning, making it five losses in a row. Let’s get into the three takeaways from the latest loss by the Sabres.
Two-Goal Leads Really Are the Worst in Hockey
The Sabres were more than involved offensively throughout this game. Though they had taken some punches, the Sabres left the ice for the first intermission with a 3-2 lead, no doubt a surprise to everyone watching both live and on television.
When Tage Thompson scored his 31st goal of the season as the Sabres had the man-advantage, it gave them a surprising 4-3 lead. Just over three minutes later, it was 5-3 Sabres. The funniest thing is that no one, not even for a second, felt like they were going to pull off the upset.
A graphic during the game showed the Sabres tied for third in the league in terms of multi-goal leads blown. And in true Sabres fashion, they saw the lead evaporate in the span of 1:03 to end the period. If they could resolve their issues with holding a lead, they would be a tough team to deal with.
An Audition for “Something Big”?
When you’re a team languishing at the bottom of the standings, the focus becomes less about what’s happening on the ice and more about what could happen. When your general manager drops cryptic lines about “doing something big,” it only adds to the trade deadline speculation.
Related: 3 Buffalo Sabres Trade Deadline Predictions
While there are differing camps about whether the Sabres should do something or not, there was an underlying sense that some Sabres were auditioning. Alex Tuch scored. J.J. Peterka had a goal and an assist. Whether either of them will still be wearing blue and gold in 24 hours remains to be seen.
Offensively, the Sabres have firepower; they are the 11th-best team in the league in terms of goals per game and the third-best scoring team at 5-on-5. There are pieces here that would be valuable in Buffalo or elsewhere, and we will know soon who will be here to help build this team up.
Team Defense Is a Major Issue
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen hasn’t been great this season, but his numbers don’t tell the entire story. Team defense has been atrocious on the whole this season. Jake Guentzel’s third of the night, a power play goal into a gaping net, is the epitome of the team’s lack of defense overall.
It’s hard to even pinpoint one issue. Rebound control and net-front presence are abysmal. They get overwhelmed in their own end quickly and easily. There is a total lack of physicality when defending their own end, and it is far too common for them to run around like chickens missing their heads. Whether that’s a coaching issue or a personnel issue is anyone’s guess, but team defense is flat-out awful.
The Last Excitement of the Season
The trade deadline is finally here, the last significant milestone for the team before the NHL Draft in June. It’s the sad reality of the Sabres as a franchise these days, but here we are. Whether they are active or not remains to be seen, but we are all simply slogging through the remaining 21 games.
The fans deserve better than this. This kind of game may have been an enjoyable moral victory during the worst days of the tank years, but this isn’t supposed to be acceptable anymore. Simply keeping games close with better teams isn’t good enough anymore. Whether changes come at the deadline, in free agency, or at the draft, the culture needs a critical shift.
