Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - The Buffalo Sabres played the worst offensive team in the NHL and a team that was reeling on Friday night, but ended up laying an egg in a 4-3 loss to the New York Islanders.
The score was closer than the game actually was, as Owen Power was deep in the crease to convert a rebound with Devon Levi pulled and the extra attacker on the ice.
Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff was extremely frustrated after the game, because his team keeps making mistakes that they shouldn’t be.
This was a clinic at how to be totally unaware of your surroundings, giving up wide-open chances and goals. There were two wide-open goals that Levi had no chance on, and two goals you hope that maybe you could get a big save on.
It was Bo Horvat and Maxim Tsyplakov coming in all alone, thanks to the Sabres not knowing Horvat had gotten behind them and a horrible decision that was a turnover by Jordan Greenway, sending away Tsyplakov and then him undressing Connor Clifton to cut in alone on Levi.
Levi did make some big saves, but the Sabres were losing battles and allowing breaks due to bad decisions and bad awareness. This gave the Islanders some gift goals and too many prime scoring chances.
A team missing two of its best offensive players scored four goals and had 36 shots on goal.
Injuries to Adam Pelech and Mike Reilly put the Islanders down to four defensemen for half the game, and the Sabres failed to pressure those four defensemen, tire them out and create their own turnovers.
"I don’t think we won enough battles," said Ruff following Friday's loss. "They’ve got some big boys back there. We didn’t win enough battles. We got in, and it was one and done.
"I thought we had some players in 50-50 battles that we’ve got to be better on."
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Many, of course, are trying to blame Levi for this game, but Ruff correctly disagreed.
"This game isn’t on our goalie, I’m just telling you. I have to clean this up, that’s on me. I have to clean up our play, we had a focal point of making sure to stay around the front of the net. And really, the first goal and the fourth goal are just goals that can’t happen."
Ruff was also upset with more bad penalties taken by his team. That’s been a problem pretty much on a nightly basis.
Buffalo had 73 shot attempts, but 23 of them were blocked. The Islanders have been good at blocking shots since I’ve been covering this league, so it’s no surprise.
"You look at the goal that made it 4-3, it was just McLeod getting the puck to the front of the net. It wasn’t a bomb one-timer, he wasn’t trying to shoot through anybody," Ruff noted. "He got the puck to the front of the net where it could rattle around a little bit, we had them outnumbered and we knew they’d be in Thompson’s shot lane. We knew they’d be in Dahlin’s shot lane. So JJ had two or three looks, and he missed the net. Those have to hit the net."
Ruff also knows the mistakes of missed assignments and leaving guys open in the middle of the ice are killing them.
"We score a goal, and immediately give up a goal in the first period (it took 40 seconds), and when you’ve got guys thinking offense, it’s going to come back and bite you. It bit a few guys tonight," Ruff said. "Let’s be real, we handed them three goals. We had been playing pretty tight, and it’s starting to slip. We get beat 1-on-1, we’ve got a defensemen caught deep where a forward’s covering gets on the wrong side of the puck. You’re not going to win a lot of games when you hand the opposition two or three breakaways on 2-on-nothing plays."
If this were my team, Jiri Kulich, Jacob Bryson and Dennis Gilbert would all be in the lineup on Saturday in Detroit against the Red Wings.
Friday night was unacceptable, and some players need to pay the price.