(WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres aren’t eliminated from the playoff race, but losing 2-1 to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday severely hurt their chances.
The Panthers and New York Islanders hold down the two Wild Card spots in the Eastern Conference with 87 points. The Pittsburgh Penguins are at 86 points, while the Sabres have 81. Buffalo holds two games in-hand on all three teams, but they only have six more games to play.
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If the Sabres could’ve played the whole game like they did the last six minutes, chances are good they probably wouldn’t have lost that game. Buffalo generated chance-after-chance-after-chance, pressuring the Panthers into turnovers and forcing third string goalie Alex Lyon into some huge saves. The Sabres were playing fast and totally on point.
Buffalo had 10 of their 18 shots in the period during those six minutes. Once head coach Don Granato shortened his bench by sitting Jordan Greenway, Tyson Jost and Peyton Krebs, the Sabres just took over.
Casey Mittelstadt had three golden opportunities, but Lyon came up big at every turn. Buffalo played the final 12.8 seconds with a 6-on-3 power play and even won the draw, but couldn’t score.
Don’t let 40 shots on goal for the game fool you. The Sabres went the first 15 minutes of the second period hardly putting a skate into the offensive zone. They went eight minutes without a shot.
Florida had some chances in the first and second periods on Sabres goalie Devon Levi, who was stellar. Buffalo spent a lot of time defending, but the defense did well enough to keep the Panthers on the perimeter. When they turned it over, Levi was huge.
In the final five minutes of the second, defenseman Mattias Samuelsson joined a rush and wound up behind the net. For four-straight shifts, Buffalo got a great cycle going inside the zone, and put a lot of pressure and anxiety on the Panthers defense.
The problem was, they didn’t carry it into the beginning of the third period.
Just 59 seconds in, they had a bad turnover and some very soft play along the wall, which allowed the puck to get back to the point. Matthew Tkachuk tipped in a shot from Brandon Montour, and that ended the scoring.
In a penalty-filled first period, Dylan Cozens and Aaron Ekblad traded power play goals. Ekblad’s goal was just a bad break, as his shot hit the post, then hit Levi in the back and went in.
Buffalo did score just 3:42 into the game, as Alex Tuch brought the puck out from behind the net and beat Lyon. However, Florida challenged the play and replay showed Tuch entered the zone offside.
The Sabres weren’t perfect, but they defended better than they normally do, and definitely defended well enough to win a game. Levi made some huge saves to give his team a chance to win the game.
The problem was, the Sabres were just average and didn’t fully get to their game until there was only six minutes left on the clock.
When you’re playing for your playoff lives, average usually won’t be good enough. It wasn’t on Tuesday night.
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