Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – The numbers on Tuesday say the Buffalo Sabres dominated the Arizona Coyotes in their 4-1 loss on home ice. But in this case, the numbers didn’t tell the true story.
Yes, Buffalo did have a lot of time in the offensive zone, but they didn’t play with passion. Sabres head coach Don Granato has been disappointed with this team for two days now.
Granato didn’t like their practice on Monday, and he definitely didn’t like their play on Tuesday. What he saw was a team trying to take the easy way out.
“I don’t care what the stats said at all. We felt that we wanted an easier game," said Granato following Tuesday's loss. "We didn’t do what it took to maybe create more chances or score the goals we needed by getting to the net and getting pucks to the net.
“We had three goals going in off a foot into our own net, and that’s an indication of us not being ready like we should have been, and we need to be.”
Granato says don’t be fooled by their goals going in off them, because the Sabres didn’t play hard enough.
"We were too slow, we hit goal posts. The bottom line is we could’ve won a game, but we didn’t go attack a game like we needed to,” he said.
For me, you can’t play seven games at home, be 4-3-0 with losses to Arizona and the Montreal Canadiens and call yourselves a better team.
This team has talked about stopping losing streaks before they hit a crisis mode. Losing road games to the Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning, especially the last one where Rasmus Dahlin can’t play, is understandable. But to come home, trying to break a two-game losing streak and laying an egg like that is inexcusable.
There are teams right now like the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals that aren’t playing very well, and as of early November, are holding the door wide-open for some team to make the playoffs.
The New Jersey Devils are a team playing like they want to be the team to kick that door down. Head coach Lindy Ruff’s crew has the third-best points percentage in the NHL at .769. These three losses have put Buffalo down to 17th at .538.
For a while, it was looking like the Sabres wanted to contend for the playoffs this season, but this can’t go on.
They better get strapped in and ready, because the top-two teams in the National Hockey League are on their way. The Vegas Golden Knights play the Sabres on Thursday, and are 12-2-0 this season and have won eight-straight games. Meanwhile, the Boston Bruins are 11-2-0 and will be in town on Saturday.
I don’t need to tell you what two losses there would mean, because then you could say you’ve seen this movie many times before.
