Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – To nobody’s surprise, the Buffalo Sabres lost their ninth-straight game on Thursday night, 5-2, to the Pittsburgh Penguins. It marked the fourth time in five games where Buffalo lost by that same 5-2 score.
For the first time since he arrived in Buffalo, I heard Ralph Krueger talking about needing a response from him team.
First, Rasmus Dahlin got crushed at center ice by Penguins forward Teddy Blueger. Matt Irwin thought about stepping in the protect the young defenseman, but decided against it.
In the third period, Dylan Cozens had the puck facing center ice. He was four-to-six feet away from the wall and a split second after he passed the puck, Zach Aston-Reese hit him hard in the shoulder and chest with a clean body check. Cozens fell backwards and his head hit the boards, and maybe even the ice. Colin Miller did his job and for the second time this year and stuck up for a teammate.
A few minutes later, former Sabres defenseman Chad Ruhwedel stuck his leg out, forcing a dirty knee-to-knee hit on Dahlin. Dahlin had trouble getting up and getting to the bench. Yet again, no response.
Dahlin didn’t miss a shift, but you could tell he was having trouble.
This season, only Miller, Curtis Lazar and Jake McCabe have stepped up to help teammates. Krueger wants to see more in Saturday’s rematch against Pittsburgh.
"We need to prepare ourselves for a reaction," the Sabres head coach said following the loss. "We've got Pittsburgh again in two days. The hits on Dylan and Rasmus, they're boiling the blood right now. We just need to show a reaction."
OK, fair enough. I’m really interested to see who this person is that’s going to instigate this riot.
Krueger said Cozens is still getting evaluated. It’s just a shame that the kid got hurt, because he might be the only bright spot on this team right now.
For me, the difference in this game is despite letting in one bad goal to Tage Thompson, Tristan Jarry made some huge saves. At the other end, Jonas Johansson let in three questionable goals, and there wasn’t big save to be found.
When you’re playing against Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, you can’t afford to have a guy who will never be anything more than an AHL goalie in your net.
Krueger has absolutely no feel for the game or his opponent. In his career, Carter Hutton is 5-1-0 against the Pens with a 1.95 goals-against average and a .940 save percentage, but he sat and watched.
Neither team produced all that many scoring chances, but I thought the Sabres had the better opportunities.
Jeff Skinner had another breakaway and was stopped by Jarry. Buffalo also hit four posts in the game, two by Miller and two by Olofsson.
Thompson had a really good first period, playing for the first time in eight games. The problem is, what happens quite often with him, he has a really good period and you don’t notice him for the rest of the game.
The 23-year-old went in for Tobi Rieder, who was a healthy scratch. His goal was such a good play. Kyle Okposo got into the zone first and took the man. He won the battle, and Thompson swooped in for support. The kid took the puck behind the net and came out for a wrap around that went under Jarry’s pad. It was Thompson’s first goal in 34 games.
Thompson had another great chance on the power play when Cozens gained the zone with speed and found him skating open in the slot. It turned into another big save by Jarry. Thompson also ripped a laser from the high slot that had a good chance of hitting the back of the net had it not gone wide.
Buffalo only had 23 shots on Jarry and went down quietly in the third period.
