The Buffalo Sabres found themselves behind early to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night at KeyBank Center. Even with a few great chances, the Sabres struggled to solve Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask in a 2-0 loss.
The Bruins got a lead early, and it would be all they would need to take two points from their opponent. It seemed that each Sabres opportunity was met with an equally debilitating penalty. The Sabres were never able to battle back.
Let's take a look at three observations from Tuesday night's loss:
1.) Ristolainen's selfishness costs the Sabres in multiple ways
Rasmus Ristolainen has been a polarizing figure over his time with the Sabres. Many like his physical game, and believe this is a part of his defensive strategy. Many others think that means nothing if he continues to make poor decisions in the heat of the moment.
On the Bruins' second goal of the game, Ristolainen had view of the play directly in front of the net. Bruins defender Connor Clifton took a shot from the point that Sabres netminder Dustin Tokarski got a piece of it, but not enough. The puck trickled behind him.
Ristolainen saw bodies in front of the net, and was even looking at the net with the puck sitting behind Tokarski. Instead of make a play on the puck, Ristolainen made an effort to sucker punch Curtis Lazar, pushing the players back into Tokarski, causing the goaltender to push the puck in the net to give the Bruins a two-goal lead.
Later in the second period, the Sabres had a power play thanks to Brad Marchand elbowing Sabres defender Henri Jokiharju. Midway through the power play, the puck went up into the air, which Rask easily saw and caught out of the air. Rasmus Ristolainen came barreling in and laid a late check on Bruins forward Jeremy Lauzon, resulting in a roughing call taking away the remaining power play time.
Buffalo was never able to claw their way back, and digging yourself a hole to begin with is not something the Sabres can afford.
2.) Power play lifeless with numerous opportunities
The Sabres' power play has seen some slight success as of late, but on Tuesday night, it simply didn't come through.
Buffalo had five opportunities with the man advantage and could barely muster any sort of offense. The team only generated five shots on goal.
Since their win to break their 18-game winless streak, the Sabres' power play has been middle of the road, scoring on four of their 24 chances with the man advantage, good for a 16.7% conversion rate.
Buffalo carried the No. 1 power play unit for a good portion of the first part of the year until a stretch of 15 games without scoring on the power play that coincided with their winless streak.
The Sabres had a huge opportunity at the end of the game with a two-man advantage late in the third period. Down 2-0, the Sabres pulled their goaltender for a 6-on-3 man advantage. Buffalo spent too much time looking for the pass and couldn't muster any sort of scoring chance.
3.) Buffalo struggles to generate offense 5-on-5 against the Bruins
No matter the phase of the game, the Sabres struggled through it. Buffalo battled back, in terms of shots in the third period, but throughout the first two periods, Buffalo just couldn't get it going against the Bruins.
The Bruins held control from the moment they scored their first goal, continuing to apply pressure to the Sabres throughout the first 40 minutes and not allowing Buffalo to get any sort of high-danger scoring chance.
Buffalo's biggest chance in the entire game came in the second period, with the Sabres already down 1-0 and a chance to knot things up. However, Tuukka Rask made an enormous save to keep the Bruins one-goal lead. It wouldn't take long before Connor Clifton would double up the Bruins lead.
Even with the majority of the shots in the third period, the Sabres never really threatened Boston's lead.
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Buffalo's going to get another couple of chances to play the Bruins and, perhaps, spoil their chance at a division title, as Boston finishes up its season. Besides that chance, there's a few Sabres still playing hard to close out the season and possibly earn a job in the NHL next year. Their next shot at the Bruins comes Thursday night at KeyBank Center.
We'll start things off with the Paul William Beltz Pregame Show hosted by the Bulldog starting at 6 p.m. ET with puck drop scheduled for just after 7 p.m. ET on the flagship station of the Sabres - WGR Sports Radio 550.