(WGR Sports Radio 550) - The Buffalo Sabres played pretty well on Saturday in Edmonton against the Oilers, but some of the same problems that have lost them hockey games all season long cropped up again.
In Calgary on Thursday against the Flames, Buffalo had 77 shot attempts, but had over 20 shots miss the net and lost, 5-2.
Against the Oilers, they had 74 shot attempts and lost, 3-2.
That means in two games, they’ve had 151 shot attempts and scored four goals. Most teams in the NHL will win easily if they have that many attempts.
This team has desperately needed a veteran top-six forward that could score goals for two years, but general manager Kevyn Adams believes this team can score, and has said so numerous times.
Buffalo had 36 shots in the final 40 minutes and scored once. In the first eight minutes of the second period, the Sabres had 14 shots. They had nine shots on a power play that produced a goal five seconds after it was over.
Dylan Cozens battled extremely hard in front of the net, and got it back to the point to Owen Power. He found Jiri Kulich open in the right circle, and he ripped a one-timer past Stuart Skinner to give the Sabres a 2-1 lead.
After that, Buffalo only had three shots the rest of the period, and gave up a goal because of poor play and, another of their biggest problems for years, horrific awareness.
Kasperi Kapanen came down against Cozens and made him look silly with the Denis Savard "spin-o-rama" move. He put the puck in the crease, and Alex Tuch got caught puck-watching and let Ryan Nugent-Hopkins pounce on the loose puck in the crease to make it 2-2.
In the third period, the Sabres were outshooting the Oilers, 11-1, just 4:16 in, but couldn’t beat Skinner.
A few minutes later, JJ Peterka was completely oblivious that Nugent-Hopkins was skating by him, and he was wide-open to take the pass and score the game-winning goal.
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The first goal came from former Sabres winger Jeff Skinner, because Mattias Samuelsson threw the puck up the slot and it was picked off. Skinner was left open to convert a rebound.
The Sabres kept working in the third to get chances, but couldn’t beat Stuart Skinner in goal. Kulich battled hard right at the crease, but kicked it by Skinner, which replay rightfully disallowed.
So in the end, they were 1-3-0 on this trip, because they only scored 11 goals in those four games. Four of them came in the loss to the Kraken in Seattle. Even when they play well, they tend to be horrible at the little details of the game that are the difference between winning and losing.
Their situational awareness is as bad as it gets, and that rarely improves.
This is a team that completely held Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin off the score sheet, but still lost, 5-2, to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
On Saturday, Connor McDavid was suspended by the NHL, and the Sabres completely held the NHL’s leading goal scorer and second-leading scorer overall, Leon Draisaitl, off the scoreboard, and still lost.
It just goes to show you how much better the rest of the NHL is than the Sabres.