Pittsburgh, Pa. (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres fired 35 shots on Tristan Jarry on Saturday night, but it really didn’t seem like they had much push or much desire to get second chance shots or screens.
At the end of the night, Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had a lot more difficult stops than Jarry did, and it ended with a 4-0 win for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Many will want to blame Luukkonen for letting in a soft goal from the circle by Drew O’Connor, but the fact remains Buffalo didn’t score a goal. It doesn’t matter if he let in a bad one.
Jarry had a few difficult stops, but he pretty much just showed up and did his job.
It certainly wasn’t that Buffalo was the tired team playing back-to-back nights, because Pittsburgh played in Los Angeles on Thursday night and also had to be fatigued.
One thing I didn’t think worked at all and I think hurt this team is Granato only kept one line together, which was the Tage Thompson line. They dressed 11 forwards and many shifts, a different combination of three came over the boards.
In my mind, it’s impossible to get a flow going when things change every shift.
The power play was still a complete mess, as the Sabres can’t even enter the zone. A big part of the problem is they lose almost every faceoff. That means instead of getting set up, the puck goes down the ice, and now they can’t enter the zone to get set up.
There should be no panic here, because this team is 4-2-1 in its last seven games. However, there should be concern at the inconsistencies this club has.
Related
The Boston Bruins are in town on Tuesday. Despite losing Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, they still lead the Atlantic Division and are No. 1 in the Eastern Conference.
