(WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres went up against a goaltender on Sunday that hadn’t played in a National Hockey League game since 2018, but still lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets, 7-3.
For the first 15 minutes of the game, Columbus ran Buffalo right out of the building. Luckily for them, Craig Anderson stood on his head, and the Sabres were only behind 1-0 despite being outshot, 16-1.
Buffalo then seemed to get their legs for a few minutes, as Mark Pysyk found himself open after jumping in from the right point to score. Shortly afterwards, Alex Tuch caused a turnover in the Columbus end and found Tage Thompson, who ripped home his 20th goal of the season.
Two goals in 2:09 gave the Sabres the lead. The problem was, they went back to old habits and the next onslaught began. This time, it only took 10 seconds for Boone Jenner to tie the score at 2-2.
It was disappointing to see the Sabres play this way, because it’s now been two out of the last three games.
“You can splice it up lots and lots of different ways, but we looked tired. We just looked tired," said head coach Don Granato following the loss. "It was tired plays and tired mistakes. We were physically tired and mentally tired, and we couldn’t finish simple stuff. The bottom line is we have to learn how to play through that, and we didn’t adjust to not feeling your game.”
A good example was a Columbus rush in the second period that started off 2-on-2. When it got to the blue line, it was a 3-on-2 rush. After that, it became a 4-on-2 rush with no Sabres players busting it to get back.
It also didn’t help that defenseman Rasmus Dahlin missed the game with a lower-body injury.
That was very apparent on Brendan Gaunce’s goal, which made the score 5-2 in the second period. Jacob Bryson took Dahlin’s spot with Henri Jokiharju, and Bryson went to the bench for a change, which Jokiharju wasn’t expecting. Pysyk had no chance coming off the bench to get into the play, and Jokiharju had no idea Bryson was gone, leaving Gaunce behind the defense.
If you’re asking why the Sabres would be tired, they were playing on back-to-back days. It was also three games in four days, and five games in eight days.
If the Sabres were going to win this game, it needed to be in the first period when J-F Berube may have been doubting himself since it had been almost four years since he had played in the NHL. The Pysyk and Thompson goals were evidence of that. One shot in the first 15 minutes just wasn’t going to get it done.
By the time the Sabres showed up in the third period, Berube was confident and stopped all 18 Buffalo shots. I think he may have gotten his confidence when he stopped Thompson in the second period point blank off a 2-on-1.
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There’s really not much more to say other than in all three losses to the Blue Jackets this season, Columbus played like it wanted the two points more than the Sabres, scoring 18 goals in three games.
Buffalo is off from practice on Monday, they’ll return to the ice on Tuesday and then play in Montreal against the Canadiens on Wednesday.
