Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres had to live with just another horrible coaching decision by Ralph Krueger and it may have cost them a game.
Carter Hutton was lights out on Saturday against the Pittsburgh Penguins, stopping 31 of 32 shots en route to the Sabres’ 10th-straight loss. The final score was 3-0, but the last two goals were empty netters by Sidney Crosby and Mark Jankowski.
Hutton made numerous big saves to keep the game at a one goal deficit, but the Sabres, once again, made a backup goalie look like Dominik Hasek.
The mistake Krueger made is Hutton is now 5-2-0 against the Penguins with a 1.83 goals-against average and a .943 save percentage. He went with an AHL caliber goalie in Jonas Johansson on Thursday, who let in three goals he would want back and the Sabres lost to the Pens, 5-2.
In the first period on the power play, Rasmus Dahlin turned the puck over to Brandon Tanev, who sent in Teddy Blueger all alone. Hutton bailed out Dahlin, which is something he’s had trouble with this season.
Hutton was especially good in close. Pittsburgh caused numerous schmozels around the crease, but Hutton found ways to stop the puck whether he was on his feet or sprawled.
One of his nicest saves was when Crosby led a 2-on-1 down the right wing.
He sent a perfect pass over to Jake Guentzel for, what looked like, a layup goal, but Hutton read the play beautifully and came across the crease to rob him.
He stole another goal away from Guentzel in the third period from the side of the net.
Guentzel did wind up being the only Penguins player to beat Hutton. It came on the power play when Evgeni Malkin found an open Guentzel at the top of the crease. Hutton made a great save on the original shot, but Brandon Montour failed to pick him up and Guentzel hit the puck out of the air for his 10th of the season.
What makes this loss even worse is the Sabres did a terrific job 5-on-5 against both Crosby and Malkin. Malkin wasn't even noticeable, while Crosby made the pass on the 2-on-1 and shot wide when left alone in front. Other than that, he was very quiet.
On the night, Sam Reinhart had numerous good chances on DeSmith, but was either stopped or he shot wide. Montour was also active and had some great scoring chances. Victor Olofsson was stopped twice from the slot and once from the right faceoff circle on a one-timer.
Without Jack Eichel on the power play, Dahlin has gotten the yips. The kid had a wide-open lane down the slot. He took a few steps towards the net and instead of ripping one through the open shot lane with Sabres in front screening, he elected to pass the puck, which got knocked away. Buffalo has now gone nine games without a power play goal.
Buffalo is now back to last place in the NHL with a .308 points percentage. It is also the worst record in Sabres history. The previous record was .317 for the 2013-14 team that tanked to get the first or second overall pick in the draft.
They got the second pick and took Reinhart, instead of the NHL’s second-leading scorer this year in Leon Draisaitl.
The Edmonton Oilers forward led the league in scoring last season, picking up 43 goals and 67 assists for 110 points in 71 games. Reinhart had 22 goals and 28 assists for 50 points in 69 games. This year, Draisaitl has 16 goals and 29 assists for 45 points in 30 games. In 24 games, Reinhart has 11 goals and eight assists for 19 points.
It was April 29, 2013 when Darcy Regier said:
“The vision started last season at the trade deadline. We began moving in the direction of having to acquire more top players. This is about building for the Stanley Cup, not a playoff run.”
The trades Regier was talking about were, Jason Pominville to the Minnesota Wild, Jordan Leopold went to the St. Louis Blues and Robyn Regehr to the Los Angeles Kings.
He went on to say:
“You could go to the bottom of the league for five years and hope you land on a Crosby or a Malkin.”
And then came the most famous line of all that has had this franchise on the downward swing since.
“It probably needs an understanding from our fan base that what Terry is asking of us is to try a lot of things. He is in search of creating a Stanley Cup champion and it may require some suffering.”
In the 2013-14 campaign, Thomas Vanek was sent to the New York Islanders, Steve Ott and Ryan Miller were traded to the Blues, Matt Moulson and Cody McCormick were sent to the Wild and Corey Tropp was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Getting back to Saturday’s game, DeSmith did have to make some decent saves for Pittsburgh, but he now has two shutouts in three career games against Buffalo. DeSmith game up five goals in the other game he faced the Sabres.
The Sabres are 30th in the NHL, scoring 2.15 goals per-game. The Anaheim Ducks are last, averaging 2.14 goals per-game.
Buffalo has been shutout five times this season, and only have three or more goals in 11 games out of 26 games. Four of those games came in the season’s first six. Since then, they’ve scored three or more goals in just seven games.
The team has Sunday off and will host the Washington Capitals on Monday night.
