(WGR 550) – Michael Houser deserved better from his teammates than he got in Pittsburgh on Thursday against the Penguins. Houser played so well in two wins over the New York Islanders, and he was so happy to come home to play in front of family and friends.
After helping Houser overcome consecutive two-goal deficits against New York, the Buffalo Sabres abandoned him in an 8-4 loss, while he performed in front of his folks. Jeff Skinner felt awful for his new goalie.
“We didn’t help him out at all," Skinner said following the loss. "He’s played great for us, and even tonight I think he did a good job of keeping us in it for as long as we were. I think we gave them some chances that we shouldn’t have given them. He bailed us out a few times, and we have to look to be better for him the next game.”
Drake Caggiula scored two of the Sabres' four goals. He was very upset with how they treated their own goalie.
“We owe him big time," Caggiula said during his postgame comments. "In the last couple of games, he’s been a stone wall back there for us and it’s been a lot of fun playing for him. We kind of laid an egg tonight for him. He deserves better. We owe him, especially being in his hometown, we’ve got to be better than that. We’ll get back to work tomorrow and finish the year on a strong note.”
The thing that made this game more sickening is Buffalo took a 1-0 lead when Riley Sheahan stripped Mark Friedman of the puck and sent Caggiula the other way. Caggiula caught Tristan Jarry deep in his net and he had his first goal with the Sabres.
Jeff Carter tied the game at 9:57 and just 1:43 later, he got open on a power play and its 2-1, Pittsburgh.
Casey Mittelstadt opened the second period leading a 3-on-2 from the left wing, and Tage Thompson went hard to the net and converted for his career-high eighth goal of the season. That ignited five goals in 3:53 between the two teams, because the Sabres still haven’t learned how to have a good shift after a goal.
Just 1:04 after Thompson’s goal, Carter completed the hat-trick to make it 3-2, Pittsburgh. Carter is thriving since being traded from the Los Angeles Kings, scoring eight goals and two assists for 10 points in 13 games with the Pens.
Carter had eight goals and 11 assists for 19 points in 40 games with L.A.
Carter is quite familiar with playing in Pittsburgh, because he spent six years and 461 games playing for the Philadelphia Flyers. He also had 39 games with the Columbus Blue Jackets in the 2011-12 season.
The Sabres kept up their part of the offensive bargain for one more goal as, Caggiula got his second of the game 37 seconds after Carter’s goal to make it 3-3. The Penguins then spent the final 34:47 running the Sabres right out of the building.
Sidney Crosby won a faceoff back to Brian Dumoulin just 1:13 after Caggiula’s goal and he beat Houser short-side from considerable distance to make it 4-3. Jared McCann used the next 59 seconds to set Rasmus Dahlin up for a screen, and it was 5-3 after 40 minutes.
There really should’ve been no panic in the Sabres' locker room, because they were on a two-game winning streak and in both games, they recovered from two goals down. Early in the third, Carter netted his fourth of the game, giving him 19 goals in 38 games against Buffalo.
Crosby then tipped in Kris Letang’s shot, and after Jeff Skinner scored his first power play goal since Feb. 15, 2019 against the New York Rangers, Kasperi Kapanen was left open and Evegeni Malkin easily found him for the Penguins' eighth goal.
Houser left this game with a Sabres worst 4.22 goals-against average.
The Penguins have scored 15 goals in their last two games, and have won four out of five games to take the lead in the East Division.
Buffalo clinched last overall in the NHL for the fourth time in eight years. The first three times got them Sam Reinhart, Jack Eichel and Dahlin in the NHL Draft. None of them have done this team any good at all, as they are not the least bit better as a team now than they were eight years ago.
In these eight years, they got Dahlin first overall, Reinhart and Eichel second overall, Dylan Cozens seventh overall, Alex Nylander, Rasmus Ristolainen, Mittelstadt and Jack Quinn eighth overall, and Nikita Zadorov 16th overall. Zadorov’s pick came over from the Minnesota Wild in the Jason Pominville trade. Buffalo also drafted Ryan Johnson 31st overall in 2019 from the Ryan O’Reilly trade with the St. Louis Blues. From January to June that year, the pick went from first overall to 31st overall.
In 2015, former general manager Tim Murray traded their first round pick to the Ottawa Senators for Robin Lehner. That was the pick they got from the Islanders for Thomas Vanek.
Murray also traded a No. 1 pick acquired from the St. Louis Blues in the Ryan Miller and Steve Ott trade to the Winnipeg Jets to get Evander Kane. That pick was the 25th overall pick.
When the Sabres sent Kane to the San Jose Sharks, Jason Botterill got a No. 1 pick, which was 29th overall. However, he traded that pick to the Anaheim Ducks for Brandon Montour.
That’s a lot of currency that was totally thrown away by both Murray and Botterill, and where did it get the Sabres? The No. 1 overall pick in Dahlin in 2018, and the best odds in this coming NHL Draft Lottery to get the No. 1 pick.
The Sabres can pick no worse than third in the 2021 NHL Draft.
