Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - The Buffalo Sabres played much better on Thursday, but that doesn’t matter anymore, because moral victories don’t matter to a team that has proclaimed the time is now.
The Sabres lost in overtime to the Winnipeg Jets, 3-2, and are now on a five-game losing streak, picking up 2-of-10 points. What's worse is the last three losses have come against severely slumping teams.
Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff felt the game was a missed opportunity because of overtime.
"The three plays in overtime where you’re walking in alone, and I think we showed our NHL youth," said Ruff during his postgame thoughts. "For [Jiri] Kulich, whose got a bullet of a shot, to try a play that he tried, give him another 1,000 chances and he’s going to shoot it every time. The guy was basically saying, ‘Go ahead and walk in,’ and it’s just the unselfish part of a player that doesn’t have enough NHL games. He’s thinking, 'I gotta pass this.' We definitely had out chances to convert.
"We had three 2-on-1's [in overtime] where we don’t convert. You probably don’t want your defenseman (Bo Byram) to gamble there as the third guy, so they’re going 2-on-0 the other way, and I think we could’ve done a better job of stopping in front of our net coming back (Alex Tuch on the overtime winner)."
The team was better defensively, but a few mistakes made the difference between winning and losing.
"I didn’t like the first goal. We weren’t strong enough," Ruff added. "[Byram], that guy should’ve never gotten to the front of the net. We can’t give up opportunities where they undercut us and get to the net front."
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The Sabres were on the losing end of two challenges on Thursday. One gave Winnipeg its first goal of the game, and the other disallowed Tyson Kozak’s first NHL goal in his first game in the league.
The Jets scored when Gabe Vilardi cut in front of the net and tipped in a shot from the point by Haydn Fleury. As Vilardi went by, he struck Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s catching glove, which didn’t allow him to make the save.
Ruff challenged the goal and lost, because Luukkonen’s glove was outside the crease.
Luukkonen was furious about that ruling after the game.
"I don’t know if there’s a smart way to say this, but I feel like it’s bull****," Luukkonen said in disgust. "There’s no way I can make a save on that. I’m not that far out from the crease. If they want to call that a good goal, I don’t see a difference on the other end then. Our guy gets pushed into him. I don’t know, I don’t have a chance to make a save on that play. But in the end, they make the calls and we play."
When asked if no one knows what is going to be called, Luukkonen feels that's 100% the case.
"I just try to play goalie as much as I can, and I don’t know if your toes are out of the crease, if it’s now a free-for-all where you can get hit and they can do whatever they want. So what’s the thing there? I don’t know what happened when our goal got taken off, but I don’t think that should’ve happened today," Luukkonen said.
On Kozak’s disallowed goal, Beck Malenstyn was coming through and made skate-to-skate contact with Connor Hellebuyck as he was being pushed by Brad Lambert. However, the goaltender’s skate was in the crease, which was the difference between the two calls.
I think both calls were done correctly, but that doesn’t mean you have to like the rule. It sounds like many would like to see changes to the rule, or junk replay all together.
The Sabres came out fast to try to make up for blowing a four-goal lead in Tuesday's 5-4 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, and they did.
Tage Thompson wristed home a power play goal from the right circle just 3:27 into the game, and before the first period was over, Zach Benson fed Dylan Cozens right in the crease on a nice give-and-go to put Buffalo back out in front, 2-1.
But just like in the Avalanche game, that ended the scoring, as the Sabres didn’t score in the final 52:30 of the game.
The Sabres have just nine goals in the five-game losing streak. At least Thompson and Cozens are rolling, as Thompson has three goals in two games and Cozens has three goals in six games.
Up next is the Utah Hockey Club, making it’s first appearance ever in Buffalo on Saturday.