(WGR Sports Radio 550) - The Buffalo Sabres had an absolutely disastrous weekend in Prague, as they were completely outplayed by the New Jersey Devils and come home 0-2-0.
New Jersey was faster, smarter, tougher, and made Buffalo look like a team that is actually worse than last year’s squad.
Nothing that head coach Lindy Ruff has been teaching them since training camp opened has gotten through, especially work ethic. The Devils won a majority of the battles ,and won them rather easily.
The team rarely competed, and rarely got players and pucks to the net.
In Saturday’s game, Jake Allen was never called upon to make a big save. He pretty much stood there and stopped 17-of-18 pucks.
At the other end, Devon Levi was superb, and the only reason the Sabres didn't lose by four or five goals. Levi made 34 saves on 37 shots faced in the loss.
Buffalo could’ve had one easy goal in both games that could’ve changed the outcome.
During Saturday's game, Allen was totally out of the net and Alex Tuch hit the post from less than 10 feet away.
It was Nicolas Aube-Kubel in the crease with an empty net on Friday, but he babied the shot and Jacob Markstrom reached back with his stick to sweep the puck away.
This team has to learn to bear down and shoot the puck right through the back of the net when those opportunities come.
One of the few times the team did charge the net, they scored.
Tuch, Tage Thompson and Jordan Greenway all got to the crease, and kept digging at the puck until Thompson put it in for Buffalo.
This team is supposed to be harder to play against, but the Devils had a very easy two games.
JJ Peterka was put out of Saturday’s game with a concussion when Brenden Dillon followed through with a hard hit to Peterka’s head. To his credit, Tuch showed up immediately and fought a guy that he had no chance of beating.
Zach Benson suffered a lower-body injury Friday and couldn’t play on Saturday. That allowed Czechia native Jiri Kulich to take his place on the Dylan Cozens line, but as Ruff said, "He made a lot of young plays."
In two games, Buffalo has had the lead for a total of 3:41.
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The Sabres may have an injury that is more important.
In the two games, Rasmus Dahlin doesn’t even look like a shell of himself. It leads me to believe he’s playing hurt. Remember, he missed most of training camp in Buffalo with a mid-body injury.
Dahlin has done a very poor job of leading the power play, which is now 0-for-6 this season. This group just insists on trying to beat four defenders lined up ready to defend instead of putting pucks behind them and trying to win battles, which they also aren’t good at.
So far, they are no better at winning battles or getting players to the net.
The team can take comfort that they can’t play any worse when they host the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday back in Buffalo.
General manager Kevyn Adams has said since he's gotten here, it’s their job to earn the fans back. In five years, they’ve done nothing to even come close to doing that.