Ottawa, Ontario (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres ended 2023 on a typical note: Hanging their goaltender Devon Levi out to stop numerous 2-on-1s and 3-on-2s, and leaving Ottawa with a 5-1 loss to the Senators.
There was only one goal you could fault Levi for, as he was the only reason the worst team in the Eastern Conference only had five goals. Levi allowed four goals on Sunday, as the fifth was an empty netter.
The Sabres are near the league leaders in giving up odd numbered situations, and Sunday was worse than ever.
Yes, Buffalo outshot Ottawa, 46-31, but it was another example of the Sabres making a bad goaltender look like Dominik Hasek. Anton Forsberg was good, but he saw most of the shots and didn’t have to face enough rebounds.
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Seth Appert was filling in behind the bench for the ill Don Granato for a second game, and he even said this team has to do a better job of living around the net.
Some of the goals the Sabres gave up were just errors that NHL players shouldn’t be making.
On Dominik Kubalik’s goal in the second period, everything seemed fine on a 2-on-2 rush. Ridly Greig turned on the jets and blew by Rasmus Dahlin, who just weakly waved his stick at him as he went by. Greig got the puck over to Kublik to complete the 2-on-1 and the scoring play.
There is never a time when this should happen to Dahlin, who should be dominating games. This was Ridly Greig, not Connor McDavid.
Special teams was, once again, a disaster, as the Sabres went 0-for-3 on the power play with very few quality chances. They had eight shots with the extra man, but nobody was around the net.
On the other side of the coin, Ottawa had one power play chance and the Sabres had no idea Jakob Chychrun snuck in from the right point. They also left a lane for one of the most gifted passers in the NHL, Claude Giroux, to find him.
Buffalo fell another point behind in the Eastern Conference Wild Card race, as they’re now seven back of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
It’s New Year’s Eve, so I’m not going to bore you with this mess any longer.
Buffalo has New Year’s Day off and will practice on Tuesday before leaving for Montreal on Wednesday for a Thursday matchup against the Canadiens.
Before Sunday's game, the Sabres activated Zemgus Girgensons and waived goaltender Eric Comrie.
Happy New Year everyone, and we’ll be back on Tuesday.
