Philadelphia, Pa. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - There’s really no mystery as to why the Buffalo Sabres lost 7-4 to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.
The Flyers scored two goals in 29 seconds, and had a 2-0 lead just 5:56 into the game.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was in goal for the first time since March 22 in Minnesota, and he hasn’t been sharp at all since the NHL got started again after the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. With James Reimer playing well, Luukkonen had to wait his turn.
Luukkonen certainly needed to make some big saves, and the first goal is a perfect example. Matvei Michkov led a 2-on-1 that defenseman Jacob Bryson played perfectly. In that situation, the goaltender has to have the shooter, and it wasn't even a contest.
There wasn’t anything Luukkonen could do later, as Owen Tippet came down and undressed Bryson, giving him a clean lane. Four guys were around the goal scorer Jakob Pelletier, but none of the Sabres covered him.
This was a strange game, because Buffalo had four Grade-A scoring chances to the Flyers’ two, but they were down 2-0. JJ Peterka hit the post, Alex Tuch came open through the left circle and missed the net, and Owen Power was wide-open down the slot, but didn’t shoot and passed it to Jiri Kulich on the backhand, which didn't connect.
Once they got all that out of their system, Peterka set Jack Quinn up in the slot. Quinn seems to be brimming with confidence now, and he hesitated to shoot, froze Samuel Ersson and scored.
In the second period, Peyton Krebs started a gorgeous tic-tac-toe play where he passed to Quinn, who, in turn, found Peterka for a layup.
The Sabres then grabbed a 3-2 lead when Ryan McLeod gained the zone with speed near the end of a power play and found Quinn for his second of the game, and third in three games. Quinn has five points in those three games.
It seems like this is what really galled Lindy Ruff about the game.
“We totally disrespected the game. We take a 3-2 lead, we got outchanged, gave up a rush opportunity to let them right back (2:23 later) after two great shifts in-a-row,” Ruff said following the loss.
“It was like Christmas hockey. We handed gifts out for the first three goals. You won’t win on the road. It’s something we’ve been working on.
We had lack of discipline and we had a lack of attention to detail when it comes to managing the puck early.”
Since March 4, Luukkonen is 3-6-0 with a 4.23 goals-against average and an .843 save percentage. In four of the nine games, he’s given up five or more goals, and has given up seven goals twice.
He certainly didn’t make any big saves on Saturday, but Ruff felt it wasn’t all on him Saturday.
“You look at the East-West that we gave up, we didn’t even give him a chance to feel the puck. That was a tough way to get your goalie back in.
That’s on the team,” Ruff said.
James Reimer had played four of the last five games, and since it’s another back-to-back situation, he will likely play on Sunday in Washington against the Capitals. In those games, Reimer is 3-1-0 with a 2.77 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage.
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Zach Benson was benched twice by Ruff in this game. On Michkov’s goal to make it 3-3, Benson had a chance to get the puck in deep at the end of a shift and tried to go back to Tage Thompson, who was surrounded by Flyers. He turned the puck over to Travis Konecny, who immediately sent Michkov in alone and he beat Luukkonen on a backhand over his glove.
Benson didn’t play for the final 9:24 of the second period, and then he took an offensive zone high sticking penalty at 14:23 of the third, which has been a yearlong problem for him. That ended his night.
Ruff feels taking ice-time away from Benson is all he has.
“That shift was around 50 seconds, they’re changing and there’s several players involved there. One is Bo [Byram] can get deep. ‘Benny’ can get deep. The penalty at the end is the type of penalty that you just can’t take,” Ruff explained.
“We’re trying to get back into the hockey game with a heavy gamble on our penalty kill and we get the shorthand goal (Alex Tuch, his fifth and 29th overall goal of the season) and it took away our opportunity to maybe get a late charge.”
For the second time in four games, McLeod had three assists in a game, giving him 12 assists and 15 points in his last 12 games. McLeod had two glorious shorthanded chances, but hit a post on one and was set up by Tuch off a 2-on-1 for a one-timer that was stopped by Ersson.
Buffalo would like to think it's better than the Flyers, who just fired head coach John Tortorella, but they've lost both games to them this season, 5-2 and 7-4.
Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin missed the game because of illness, and listening to Ruff, he doesn’t sound good for the Capitals game.
“He was sick, so it’s the same thing that’s been kind of going around. I would say doubtful,” he said.
Buffalo is 0-7-2 in games their captain has missed this season.
Tune in Sunday for pregame coverage on WGR with Brian Koziol and myself starting at 2 p.m. when you’ll hear from Ruff and Benson.