Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres had 23 of their 35 shots in the last 30 minutes of the game after Victor Olofsson scored on a penalty shot. However, the Sabres couldn't get the puck past goalie Juuse Saros and ended up falling 2-1 to the Nashville Predators.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was back in form, making numerous great saves to hold his team in the game until they found their game. This, however, needs to be bottom lined once again.
It doesn’t matter what they did well, what matters is they weren’t ready to play again for the first 30 minutes of the game. Thanks to Luukkonen, they weren't down by more than 2-0.
Buffalo has now lost three-straight games, and 8-of-11 games.
All of last year, head coach Don Granato talked about his team finding ways to play through pressure. 25 games into this season, he’s still talking about.
General manager Kevyn Adams has built a very talented core for this team, but I think it’s become pretty obvious many of these players can’t perform under pressure. We know they’re capable of playing Granato’s system, and when they do, they’re a very good team and they win. However, they play a lot more hockey with fear than when they don’t have fear.
There are players that are developing, that are waiting for their chance to be in this lineup. However, they’re being blocked by players that play with fear and can’t play Granato’s system. This team can’t score goals, and they can’t afford to wait for Tage Thompson and Jack Quinn to see if they can when they’re back.
Granato said Thompson is scheduled for some testing on Monday, and he’s hoping for some good news.
Earlier this season, the Sabres scored four or more goals in five out of six games. Before that and after that, they’ve scored four or more goals twice.
You can’t give up just two goals and create the quality chances they created in the last 30 minutes of that game and lose.
Dylan Cozens backed up his comments from the Carolina Hurricanes pasting they took on Saturday by leading the way with his best game. Cozens had seven shots one goal and 10 shots attempted, many of which were quality scoring chances.
He and his linemates - Zach Benson and JJ Peterka - were fearless on Sunday, and forechecked the Preds relentlessly. Cozens said following the loss he stopped thinking and just played.
Hockey games are 60 minutes, and the Sabres will rarely win by putting in 30- or 40-minute efforts.