(WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres have put together three horrendous performances in their last four games, and it has spelled a four-game losing streak.
In the process, Buffalo handed the Montreal Canadiens their fourth-straight win on a silver platter, committing turnover after turnover after turnover in a 4-0 loss.
Buffalo has been awful with the puck lately, but none of it rivaled the first period on Wednesday. The Sabres were sloppy with no look passes into the danger areas, and mental breakdowns that put Craig Anderson under siege. Buffalo was lucky to only give up one goal, and that was because Cody Eakin, from behind the net, threw the puck right up the middle.
“We helped them tonight," said Sabres head coach Don Granato of the loss. "We were sloppy early, our forwards did not support our [defense] well enough, and we gave them four chances early before we got our first chance. It was all our forwards not supporting our [defense] quick enough.”
Buffalo had one scoring chance in the whole period when Jeff Skinner led a 2-on-1. The Canadiens gave him a free lane to the net, but Skinner elected to pass to a covered Mark Jankowski and the play was killed.
The effort in the first period just wasn’t acceptable, nor was the effort in the losses to the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Ottawa Senators. That’s concerning. This is a group that has responded to Granato and his coaching, but that response has been very weak in three of the last four games.
“Their forecheck was phenomenal, and ours was very lackluster," said Alex Tuch after the loss. "We turned a lot of pucks over, and had a lot of grenades. We came out flat and weren’t ready to work.”
That says it all right there. Why is it lately more often than not that this team is not ready to work? Tuch said it perfectly, and he’s right. Half of the time when they have the puck, they act like they’re handling a grenade on their sticks.
The Sabres perked up to start the second period when in the first 30 seconds, Buffalo had three golden opportunities on Sam Montembeault. However, he wasn’t going to lose his first career shutout there.
Montembeault has only given up four goals in his last three starts.
The Sabres were somewhat better in the second, but gave up another goal when Nick Suzuki scored his second of the game on a penalty shot. Dylan Cozens turned the puck over in the neutral zone, and then got back and hooked Suzuki to cause the penalty shot.
“I’ve got to make a better play in the neutral zone for sure," Cozens said after the game. "I pushed on his arm, which caused him to lose the puck, and it was a pretty clear cut breakaway. If that was me, I’d probably want a penalty shot, so that’s on me. I’ve got to be better.”
Being worse than your opponent is one thing, but the Sabres aren’t worse than Montreal. They just got outworked, because the Canadiens wanted to win battles more and they wanted to win more.
There are players on this team playing for their NHL lives, and after this season may never play in this league again. That’s what these guys should be playing for. They should be playing for each other.
It’s been a no-show in way too many games, as of late.
