(WGR Sports Radio 550) - There haven’t been too many games where you can say the Buffalo Sabres got outworked for much of the game, but Saturday’s 3-0 loss to the New York Islanders was one of them.
In the first period, Buffalo did a good job of getting pucks and men to the net, but they didn’t work hard enough to get to loose pucks around the crease.
Early on, Sorkin left a puck laying in the paint with Jiri Kulich right there, but he didn’t battle hard enough to tap the puck in. He certainly wasn’t the only one, though, as the Islanders got to pretty much every loose puck and rebound around their net.
Buffalo got a first period break when Casey Cizikes was ruled offside before Matt Martin was left alone in the crease and scored. That allowed Buffalo to leave the period still at 0-0.
The Islanders came into the game with the league’s worst power play, but they scored just 20 seconds into their first attempt when Owen Power stood next to Anders Lee in the crease, instead of battling with him. Lee easily steered a pass from Kyle Palmieri into the net.
Just 2:05 later, Henri Jokiharju was in great shape in the neutral zone, but lost the battle to Lee, who walked in 2-on-1 with Simon Holmstrom. The Islanders captain fed a pass to Holmstrom for a layup, and a 2-0 lead.
Buffalo did manage 12 shots on Sorokin in the third period, but many were in the last three or four minutes with James Reimer pulled for the extra attacker. That was the only segment of the game where the Sabres battled hard to get inside to try to score.
Rasmus Dahlin was, once again, not at his best on Saturday.
On the power play, Brock Nelson stripped Dahlin of the puck to cut in on Reimer, who made a good save to bail out his captain. Dahlin was way too casual on this play, and paid for it.
In the third period, Nelson absolutely undressed both Dahlin and Tage Thompson, to break in, but another big save came from Reimer.
In the last 10 seconds of the game, Dahlin handed the puck right to Holmstrom, who scored the empty netter.
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This is the third time this year the Sabres have lost three-straight games. Once it came after a good run of 4-1-1, and this time, it came after they went 7-2-0.
I just don’t think they can make the playoffs going on losing streaks after they go on good runs.
Another huge problem right now is they’ve only scored 13 goals in their last seven games. That ties the Boston Bruins for the worst goals-for average in the NHL during that time at 1.86 goals per-game.
Since April of 2016, the Sabres have played the Islanders on the road in three different buildings, and New York has gone 13-1-1.
Things don’t get any easier Tuesday, as Casey Mittelstadt comes back to Buffalo for the first time as a member of the Colorado Avalanche.