Tampa, Fla. (WGR 550) – The National Hockey League has fined Buffalo Sabres coach Don Granato $25,000 for unprofessional conduct on Tuesday night directed at the officials that resulted in a bench minor penalty. The incident happened in the third period of Buffalo's 3-2 loss to the Florida Panthers.
Granato had already spoken to the media when the fine was announced on Thursday.
Although it’s not likely the Buffalo Sabres will catch the Tampa Bay Lightning for the Eastern Conference's final Wild Card spot, they must beat the Lightning on Thursday in regulation time to make it a four-point game.
The Sabres have played Tampa Bay twice in Buffalo, winning 3-2 in overtime and losing, 3-1. Buffalo is 3-1-2 in its last six games against the Bolts.
Buffalo had its three-game winning streak broken on Tuesday in Florida. They also had their five-game road winning streak snapped.
With this being a leap year, it’s only the eighth game the team has ever played on Feb. 29. They are 3-4-0 all-time on this date.
The Sabres got the game on Tuesday into the third period down by only one goal, but Granato blew a gasket because of the refereeing that he witnessed all game and put the Sabres down two men for a full two minutes. The Panthers eventually put the game away right there.
Buffalo has power play goals in 4-out-of-5 games, going 4-for-15. The Sabres gave up two power play goals to Florida for the first time since late December.
Buffalo’s goal scoring has been very consistent for six games. They’ve scored either two or three goals in all six games.
Dylan Cozens has been a point per-game player for the last 14 games.
Tampa Bay is seventh in the NHL, scoring 3.38 goals per-game. They’re also second in the league on the power play.
A lot of that is because Nikita Kucherov is the NHL’s leading scorer with 38 goals and 65 assists for 103 points. His assists are second in the league, and his goals are fourth.
In the two games against Buffalo this season, Kucherov has been pointless. In 34 career games against the Sabres, he has 17 goals and 23 assists for 40 points.
Brayden Point is also having another great year with 30 goals and 33 assists for 63 points in 61 games. Point has five goals and four assists for nine points in his last seven games.
The 27-year-olf has a 14-game point streak, scoring nine goals and 12 assists for 21 points.
Former Sabres goalie Jonas Johansson played both games in Buffalo, but he played two games ago against the New Jersey Devils. That means we will see Andrei Vasilevskiy on Thursday.
Vasilevskiy has struggled lately, giving up four or more goals in 4-out-of-5 games. Since coming back from surgery, he’s played 35-of-41 games, going 20-15-0 with a 2.99 goals-against average and an .896 save percentage.
Tampa Bay has won 2-of-3 games, but have lost 4-of-6.
Tune in during "Schopp and the Bulldog" for for pregame coverage on WGR starting at at 6 p.m. EST when you’ll hear from Granato, Zach Benson and Rasmus Dahlin.
