Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) - The Buffalo Sabres hit the road for a short two-game road trip on Friday, traveling to Raleigh, North Carolina to take on the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena. The Hurricanes were 7-2-1 coming into the game, sitting in second place in the Metropolitan Divison.
The Sabres struck first, just 28 seconds into the game, as defenseman Jacob Bryson scored his first goal of the season to make it 1-0. The Hurricanes answered just eight minutes later with a goal from forward Sebastian Aho.
The back-and-forth play continued for most of the opening period when Sabres forward Victor Olofsson scored his ninth goal of the year, giving the Sabres the lead once again. However that lead was short-lived when Aho scored his second of the night just two minutes later.
The second period saw many penalties from both sides, as well as another goal from Carolina with forward Martin Necas scoring his seventh goal of the season, giving his team the 3-2 lead.
Penalties continued to come throughout the third period for both sides. The Hurricanes notched two more goals with Jesperi Kotkaniemi netting his first goal of the season, and Aho completing his hat-trick with an empty-netter, making the score 5-2.
Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin scored a last-second scorcher on the power play to end the scoring at 5-3, Hurricanes.
Related
The Sabres had as slow night that was riddled with penalties and missed scoring chances.
Here are this game's three observations:
1.) Slow start
Speed was one of the key differences between the Sabres and Hurricanes in the game. Buffalo seemed to be out to a quick start with a very early goal and lots of puck control early on.
Over the course of the game, though, the Hurricanes took control.
The Sabres had a lot of puck control throughout the game, but would take too long to take advantage of it. They were slow to get out of their own zone, allowing Carolina to complete changes and have an effective forecheck.
Buffalo showed fans shades of their former selves by not showing the confidence or dominance they have in most games this season.
2.) Penalties galore
There were a lot of penalty calls for both teams on Friday night, and a lot of calls that were missed. The Sabres found themselves shorthanded five times throughout the game but only surrendered one power play goal.
The Sabres found themselves shorthanded five times throughout the night, and only surrendered one power play goal to the Hurricanes. The penalty kill was good for the team once again, as they have compiled a 77% success rate this season.
The power play, on the other hand, was sloppy all night long. The Hurricanes were shorthanded only four times, but it took 19:59 of game action for the Sabres to score. The first three opportunities with the man advantage were very sloppy.
The team couldn't effectively enter the offensive zone, and when they did, they weren't always able to have the best scoring chances after trying one too many passes.
The power play percentage this season is in the upper part of the league at a 23% success rate, but they need to clean it up in the games to come.
3.) Forget about it and move on
In a game like this, the team needs to have some short-term memory. This game was very much like the loss to the Montreal Canadiens, where the Sabres looked sloppy and frustrated.
Some of the deeper analytics will show that Buffalo stayed with Carolina in some aspects, but was clearly lacking in others.
Overall, the players need to put this game out of their minds with a big divisional matchup the following day against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
----------
The Sabres play the second game of their back-to-back road trip against the Lightning on Saturday night. Opening faceoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET with pregame coverage on WGR with Brian Koziol and Paul Hamilton starting at 6 p.m. ET.
