Philadelphia, Pa. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - The Buffalo Sabres still haven’t learned that they can’t take numerous penalties on the road, be without three key players and win a game.
It took Connor Clifton 6:44 to take a silly cross-checking penalty, which the Sabres did manage to kill off. It lead to them playing better, and finally winning some battles.
However, Zach Benson took away any momentum they may have been developing by taking a slashing penalty at 12:58. Devon Levi stopped Anthony Richard’s shot, but he left a rebound for the uncovered Tyson Foerster to score the power play goal.
Just 2:04 later, Travis Sanheim pretty much put the Sabres away with an unscreened one-timer that Levi has got to stop to keep his team in the game.
Trailing 3-0 in the second period, the Sabres' red-hot power play got its first chance of the game. It took 14 seconds for Rasmus Dahlin to get beaten so badly, he took an interference penalty.
Later in the period, the Sabres got their second power play and 1:02 later, another break on Levi resulted in Dahlin taking a slashing penalty.
Dahlin did eventually score on the power play, but it was 4-0 in the third period when it happened with the game well out of reach.
Related
Not only did the Sabres play poorly, but they handed the Flyers five power plays.
Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff was frustrated after the game that they keep taking needless penalties, and he says he will be taking away some ice-time.
I would say you can practically book it that Henri Jokiharju will get back into the lineup for Clifton on Wednesday.
Dahlin takes more silly penalties than anyone on this team, and despite being the captain, he should lose ice-time too.
I’m not saying this to be funny or to be a wise guy, I genuinely believe that Dahlin desperately misses Don Granato. Granato coddled him to the point of embarrassing himself, but it absolutely worked, and Dahlin played some really good hockey.
This season under Ruff, he’s played some of the worst hockey of his career.
Levi made 27 saves on 31 shots, and he’s trying to get ramped up. But with James Reimer here, Levi needs to go back to Rochester on Sunday and start playing some games.
The 22-year-old has played in the Sabres' last three games, and he's simply not ready for the NHL right now. In his last five appearances, Levi is 1-4-0 with a 4.60 goals-against average and an .846 save percentage.
The good news is the Sabres will likely be getting Tage Thompson and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen back Wednesday in Los Angeles against the Kings. Jordan Greenway is still questionable, though.
The other good news is the Sabres are two points out of the Atlantic Division’s last playoff spot, and two points out of the final Wild Card spot held by the Boston Bruins.