(WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres put forth a better effort on Tuesday night, but still blew a 2-1 second period lead and lost, 3-2, to the Devils in New Jersey.
Buffalo’s winless streak has hit 12 games, and despite playing better, Brandon Montour couldn’t care less.
“The loss last night, I think everyone in the hockey world saw that as an embarrassment, and us as players, we don’t want to come out that way," Montour said following Tuesday's loss. "We wanted to focus on tonight, and I think the energy level was there, but in the end, it’s still a loss. I don’t care how we did it, we lost the game.”
Buffalo got 35 shots on goal, which is the most they’ve had in 12 games.
They certainly had chances, but when he had to, Mackenzie Blackwood made the big saves, including robbing Eric Staal in close with less than a minute left in regulation.
Ralph Krueger made another mind-boggling coaching decision by calling timeout after New Jersey iced the puck with 33 second left. Some of New Jersey’s players had been out on the ice for almost two minutes, and they were hunched over dead-tired.
“It was because the group that we wanted out there was just out for a minute and 30 seconds, so they were tired too," Krueger said of his decision following the game. "Both groups were tired, and we wanted to keep that personnel out there. They had something going, so with 30 seconds to go, we wanted to take a breath and get one more push.”
Krueger is right. Staal, Sam Reinhart, Taylor Hall, Rasmus Ristolainen, Victor Olofsson and Rasmus Dahlin were putting on a push. However, you had your best line of the night, Jeff Skinner, Casey Mittelstadt and Curtis Lazar, sitting on the bench. You have to put them out maybe with Montour and try to take advantage of the dead-tired players on the Devils' side.
Skinner scored a nice goal, and was feisty and getting under the other team’s skin. To me, that had been missing during his slump, and it’s a big part of his game to get the opponent to concentrate on getting him back and not him scoring.
His second goal of the season was a pretty one right from the start.
Montour led the breakout with a perfect, long stretch pass to Mittelstadt. He did a nice job of gaining the zone, and Skinner read the play beautifully by beating his man to the net. Mittelstadt showed some offensive savvy to fake a shot and put a perfect pass to Skinner. One nice move later, it was 2-1, Buffalo.
The Sabres had gone eight periods without a goal, and Skinner’s tally gave them two goals in 57 seconds.
Everybody seems to think that Krueger is going to get fired after every loss. Montour was asked after 12 straight losses if he was expecting something.
“Yes, I guess," Montour said. "It’s been awhile now and there hasn’t been much, but it’s part of the business. That’s 12 in a row now, and it is what it is. I think guys expect something, just to get out of this in any way possible ,and we’ve put ourselves in this spot and we’ve got to find a way to get out of it. If there’s change, there’s change.”
Buffalo’s penalty kill haunted them again. For the most part this season, the PK has been stellar, but Miles Wood’s power play goal was the game-winner. It also marked the fourth time in five games the Sabres have given up a power play goal. This time, it was to the fourth-worst power play in the NHL.
Buffalo came into the game 7-for-16 on the power play against the Devils. New Jersey has the third-worst penalty kill in the league, and the Sabres went 0-for-2 with no shots.
