Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - For two periods on Thursday night, the Buffalo Sabres did everything head coach Lindy Ruff wanted them to do. They got on top of the Los Angeles Kings, they played with speed, they had a quick pace that caused turnovers, and they outshot the Kings, 27-11.
However, the problem they had in their 3-1 loss was the same problem all last season, and now through three games this season: THEY CAN NOT SCORE GOALS!
Pretty much on a nightly basis, they make the opposing goalie look like Dominik Hasek. They’ve already done it twice in three games, but this time was a killer.
Let’s face it, Darcy Kuemper is not a good goalie. He’s average, at best. As Ruff said following Thursday's loss, "We’re either going to start scoring goals, or we’re going to send 82 goalies to the All-Star Game."
Buffalo spent the whole night hitting the goal post, missing empty nets, missing a penalty shot, walking in on outnumbered situations only to be foiled by Kuemper, and it just never ends.
After general manager Kevyn Adams didn’t make a trade to acquire a top-six forward in the offseason, he proclaimed he’s not worried at all about scoring goals, because he believes this team can score goals.
I don’t know if he’s been watching the same 85 games I’ve been watching, but this team can’t score goals. I don’t have a crystal ball to predict the future, so maybe they will all of a sudden score goals, but I have never seen a team that hits more posts than this one does.
The Sabres were playing very well through 40 minutes, and then it was their captain who broke down.
Just 13 seconds into the third period, Rasmus Dahlin had a sloppy turnover just to the left of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, and Alex Laferriere found Anze Kopitar coming down the slot uncovered, and it’s a 1-1 game.
The Sabres' penalty kill had done a great job all night, and even scored the game’s only goal to that point on a real nice play by Alex Tuch. He stripped Quinton Byfield of the puck, and scored on his own rebound.
With 2:07 left in the game and Buffalo already killing a penalty, defenseman Mattias Samuelsson took a dumb penalty for slashing and breaking one of the Kings' sticks, giving Los Angeles a 28-second 5-on-3 power play.
Just as the first power play ended, Kopitar used a screen from Byfield and scored again to give the Kings a 2-1 lead with 1:38 left in the game.
Those two mistakes and two goals never should’ve mattered, because the Sabres easily could’ve scored four or five goals.
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This brings up another problem we’ve seen from last year.
This team is one of the worst in the National Hockey League at getting games to overtime to, at least, get one loser point. You can’t play this well and produce that many opportunities, but get no points in the game.
Buffalo did score a goal that didn’t count at the end of the first period, and it was a hard-working goal by Zach Benson. However, the puck crossed the goal line a split second after the horn sounded to end the opening 20 minutes.
Now this team is in an early-season hole at 0-3-0. They’re in it because they’ve scored three goals in three games.
The Kings were able to score three in one period.
Things don’t get any easier on Saturday when the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers come to town.