(WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres have all sorts of problems against Vitek Vanecek and Saturday’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Florida Panthers was no different. Vanecek is now 12-2-1 against Buffalo making 26 saves and frustrating the Sabres throughout.
Yes, it’s embarrassing to lose to a team that had their top four scorers, top defenseman and top goaltender out for various reasons, but Vanecek, who came in with a record of 1-3-1 as a Panther did it again. Both his wins with Florida have come against Buffalo.
He also stopped Jack Quinn, JJ Peterka and Alex Tuch in the shootout.
Owen Power got injured in the second period which put more on Dahlin who played 28:20.
It’s also the second straight game where Buffalo blew the lead and lost. On the power play Dahlin executed a gorgeous give and go with Jason Zucker to give the Sabres a 1-0 at 19:41 of the first period.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had his second straight strong start making 32 saves. He had some bad luck on Florida’s first goal as he got a crazy bounce off the back wall and the puck went to Carter Verhaeghe for the goal. The second goal was just a tip in front.
Luukkonen looked strong at challenging shooters and made many great saves on good scoring opportunities.
After a scrum in the third period, Florida gave Buffalo a full 5-on-3 for 2:00. With Tage Thompson in the penalty box that may have been the worst 5-on-3 I’ve ever seen, but to their credit, they stayed with it and Dahlin set up Peterka in the right circle and he connected with one second left in the power play giving him goals in three consecutive games.
The overtime saw good chances for both teams, but none of the five shots went in.
This game was just another embarrassment for the NHL as far as refereeing went. There were many missed calls, but none worse than Jonah Gadjovich coming off the bench head hunting and he found Jiri Kulich at center ice who got his gloves up to defend himself at the last second.
Kulich never touched the puck which makes the hit at a minimum interference. A five-minute major was called so the refs could review it and shockingly they came up with no penalty should be called. That is an absolute joke. According to Lindy Ruff the referees told him Kulich touched the puck. That just didn’t happen.
The Sabres as a group all got in there which was good to see. In the third it was Alex Tuch who addressed it. Tuch is the ultimate teammate and will always be there, which I totally respect, but it can’t be him fighting the other team’s tough guy. He did it earlier this season with Connor Clifton right there.
Things needed to be addressed, but where was Clifton or Beck Malenstyn or Sam Lafferty? They have to be the ones to address these situations, not Tuch, Thompson or Dahlin. Clifton was supposed to add toughness to the Sabres defense and he did that to start his Sabres career, but for whatever reason that has gone away.
I love the way Malenstyn plays. He’s straight ahead and he hits hard, so hard that defensemen are sometimes looking over their shoulders to see where he is. His penalty killing is top notch.
Malenstyn and the penalty killers were stellar in this game going 3-for-3. On the first kill Malenstyn blocked two consecutive shots with the first hitting him in the throat. Still, he’s a big, strong man and he has to take these incidents on with Dennis Gilbert being traded to the Ottawa Senators.
Buffalo plays its final road game of the season Sunday in Tampa Bay against the Lightning. The Sabres are now 13-25-3 away from Western New York.
Join Brian Koziol and me for the pregame starting at 5:00.