Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – This one was different.
I’m not going to lie to you, I had a totally different feeling about the Buffalo Sabres when they entered the second intermission up 3-0. For most of their 18-game winless streak, there was pretty much no question in my mind that they were going to lose.
Even on Saturday in Boston, they were the better team for the opening 40 minutes and led the Bruins, 2-1, only to give up two third period goals to lose 3-2. On that day, I pretty much never thought they'd hold up to win that game.
The reason this had a different feel, to me, is the Sabres were playing with some swagger. It’s one of the only times all season they looked confident.
I thought on Brandon Montour’s goal that made it 3-0, everybody looked confident. The line of Casey Mittelstadt, Taylor Hall and Tage Thompson was strong in the offensive zone. Thompson had been strong the whole game, and he found Montour inching in from the middle of the ice. Montour ripped a shot right under the crossbar, against a goaltender that in four games against the Sabres this season had a 0.92 goals-against average.
I thought to myself, they're starting to buy into what new coach Don Granato was teaching them.
At the other end through 40 minutes, I thought the Flyers threatened just twice.
Once was on the game’s first shift when Linus Ullmark came across and took away a great one-timer from Philadelphia’s best player, Sean Couturier. In my mind, this kid is so good I would trade Jack Eichel one-for-one for him. He's just as valuable to the Flyers as Patrice Bergeron is to the Bruins.
In the second period, Ullmark was out of position and a shot heading for the net was blocked by the defense. Philadelphia had 20 shots on goal, but only two real good chances.
With the way the Flyers have been playing as of late, I was thinking that head coach Alain Vigneault would be fired after his team lost and was dominated by the Sabres.
On Saturday, it unraveled for the whole third period, as Boston outshot the Sabres, 15-3. Ullmark made some great saves, but as usual, the Sabres didn’t get the big save.
The same thing turned out to be true on Monday.
Philadelphia roared back for three goals in the third period to force overtime, and Ullmark was not capable of bailing his team out with a big save, especially in the overtime when defenseman Ivan Provorov cut in after taking a pass from Travis Konecny. Ullmark needed to come up big there and wasn’t even close.
Of course, bad mistakes were made in front of him, but good teams win with good goaltending when they need it. The Sabres don’t get enough of that.
Buffalo was still in good shape midway through the third.
Montour took a tripping penalty and Buffalo did a terrific job of killing it off, not even giving up a shot. The problem was it seemed like the team took a deep breath, getting all full of themselves for doing a good job. They forgot the game was still going on.
Rasmus Ristolainen was spinning like a top in the defensive zone, which is something he’s been known for his whole career, and just 14 seconds after the penalty ended, Couturier found Claude Giroux with a nifty pass and a wide-open net.
That was when it all came apart. That goal made it 3-2, and the Sabres only had two more chances to score.
The one that should’ve won the game was a great effort by Thompson. He got over the red line and dove forward to send the puck towards the empty net with Elliott on the bench for the extra attacker. The puck sailed wide, Philadelphia came back the other way and Couturier tied the game with 1:29 left.
Before the third ended, Kyle Okposo came through the left circle, forcing Brian Elliott into one of his few difficult saves of the period.
It only took Rasmus Dahlin 42 seconds to turn the puck over in overtime, which set the Flyers up with a 2-on-1 rush on Mittelstadt. Mittelstadt wasn’t even close to being up for that task.
Many criticized his line being on late in the game leading 3-2, but I was fine with it. This team isn’t going to make the playoffs, so why not put players like Mittelstadt and Thompson in key situations like that to see how they’ll react? That should continue for the rest of the season.
We all know this team needs a total overhaul and I know some of you will think I’m crazy, but one of the first to go needs to be Victor Olofsson.
The 25-year-old is nothing more than a power play specialist. The only thing he does well is rip one-timers from the circle. There is nothing else in a hockey game that he’s good at. He’s a dreadful 5-on-5 player, and he brings the team down when he’s anywhere among the top-six forwards. This is the NHL and carrying a player just to be on your power play makes no sense.
Olofsson was on the ice for Philadelphia’s first two goals, and Don Granato rightfully benched him until it was 3-3. He played 12:30 in this game and had six shots on goal, but had nothing to show for it. He makes an occasional good play like in the first period when he stole the puck and found Sam Reinhart for a great opportunity, but those plays are few and far-between.
So yes, I was stunned after this loss. I thought the winless streak was going to be broken, but in the end, the same ol' Sabres showed up.
It’s the team Dahlin said had a panic attack. Granato strongly denied that was the case, but I think Dahlin was being very honest and very accurate.
Montour was beside himself after this one.
"It's embarrassing. This whole stretch is embarrassing," the defenseman said after the loss. "Any team in the NHL, that's a win. [In the] third period, you’ve got to be desperate, we just have to find a way. That's unacceptable."
Montour wasn’t finished there.
"You go through a stretch like this, you blame systems, you blame coaches. In the end, you've got to be an NHL player," he said.
"Obviously, 17 games or whatnot, but that’s got to be better on our part. That’s players. That’s completely 20 guys on the ice. That’s brutal. We owned them the first two periods. Why can’t we finish them? We just got to be better."
