Pittsburgh, Pa. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff always talks about the "1-percenters" that can win you hockey games.
If I told you Buffalo would do just as good a job on Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin as they did on Conner McDavid in a 5-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers last week, you would’ve thought the Sabres secured their fifth win in six games.
Crosby had four shots on goal and five shot attempts against the Sabres on Wednesday, while the Pens' leading scorer - Malkin - had one shot and three shot attempts.
The reason Buffalo lost in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, 4-2, was the little details they didn’t take care of.
The first period was a pretty tight and dry affair. The two teams combined for seven shots in the low-chance period, but a dumb mistake by Conor Timmins cost them.
Timmins was approaching the red line, and the play there is always get over the red line and get the puck in deep. Instead, Timmins tried a blind pass behind him right to Penguins defenseman Matt Dumba.
Mistake No. 2 was Bo Byram. Instead of blocking the shot, he got in Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s way and lifted his left leg. If you’re not willing to block the shot, get out of the way.
Byram deflected the puck past Luukkonen, and it was 1-0, Penguins.
The score stayed that way through the second period.
For the first 12 or 13 minutes of the middle frame, Buffalo was getting dominated. The only line that was getting any offensive zone time was Peyton Krebs, Beck Malenstyn and Josh Dunne, and Luukkonen was making save-after-save to hold them in.
Ruff then flipped Zach Benson to Tage Thompson’s line, and all of a sudden, Buffalo took over and got "goalied" by Tristan Jarry.
It was the Ryan McLeod, Jason Zucker and Jack Quinn line that took over.
Jarry stopped Zucker in-close, and then Timmins hit the post. Thompson came on and was robbed on an in-close backhand, and Noah Ostlund cut in open from the right circle and Jarry stopped him right in the crease.
To start the third period, Thompson fed Alex Tuch cutting in front from the right circle. Zucker was stopped from the right circle, and Josh Doan cut in on top of Jarry, but the goaltender held tough.
At 7:20 of the final period, the Sabres' relentlessness paid off as McLeod found Quinn down the slot, and he tied the game, taking a shot that went on off of Zucker.
This is where another "1-percenter" comes in.
Luukkonen lost his stick near the post, he tried to pick it up but couldn’t. While he did that, he lost track of the puck. He crawled across the crease and was square to Bryan Rust, but goalies use their sticks to cover the five-hole and he left it wide-open.
Byram went down to block this shot and missed it, resulting in Rust putting it right under him, using him as a screen. The pads were open, and the Sabres gave the lead back just 31 seconds after they tied it.
The killer came under five minutes later.
Let's talk about the next "1-percenter" that wasn’t covered, and it’s a huge problem.
Owen Power has a huge habit of being soft with his coverages in front of the net. I have lost count of how many goals have been scored with him standing with or next to the goal scorer, but doing nothing to actually cover him.
It happened again, as Erik Karlsson came through the right circle. Karlsson can’t play defense, but he’s one of the most gifted passers in the game. He found Kevin Hayes coming down the slot, and Power just stood there frozen as Luukkonen had no chance.
I just don’t understand how the same mistake keeps happening over-and-over again. Power has improved many parts of his game, but this just kills the team when it happens.
If you add all these "1-percenters" up, it spells a loss to a team you’re chasing to try to make the playoffs.
This team has dug such a deep hole for itself that picking up eight out of 10 points only got them past one of the eight teams they need to leapfrog to get into the playoffs.
Now the Sabres have won 4-of-6 games, and they are right back into the cellar of the Eastern Conference. Now the Sabres are five points back of the final Wild Card spot in the playoffs, which is held by the Penguins. The Montreal Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers and Detroit Red Wings also sit with 27 points in the standings.
This game was just another blown opportunity to pick up points. They, once again, were tied in the third period and gave up two points to an opponent they’re chasing while they got none.
On this date last season, the Sabres were in the second Wild Card position with a points percentage of .548. This season, they're down at .478.
The focus all summer long was to drastically bring down the goals-against. They have, but by a very thin margin. Last season, they were 30th in the NHL with a goals-against average of 3.50. This season, they’re 26th with a goals-against average of 3.43.
At the end of the day, despite the changes that were made on this team, they haven’t gotten any better and are actually worse.
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