You're going to spend most of Friday morning – and maybe all weekend – commiserating over the goings-on Thursday night in Foxborough, so I realize you may be turning to this space for a catch-up on what's gone on with the Sabres the last few nights.
Your guess is as good as mine. This is one bizarre hockey season.
While Cozens’ three-point night Thursday in KeyBank Center wasn’t enough to help the Sabres overcome the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche’s power play in a 6-4 loss, he showed again that he’s emerged as a consistent difference-maker in Buffalo.
The Sabres have been bad for a long time, as we all know. Maybe the first step to getting good is not being boring. The Sabres are certainly interesting. These games have been shake-your-head, must-see TV.
The latest entry was Thursday's 6-4 loss to the Colorado Avalanche in KeyBank Center, a game that saw the defending Stanley Cup champions seem a tad bored for the first 28 minutes until the Sabres started handing them power play chance after power play chance.
If you put the league's No. 1 man-advantage unit on the ice over and over, you will pay. The Sabres did. Colorado went 3 for 6 on the power play in the game and converted both ends of a 5-on-3 chance in the second period, scoring two goals in 49 seconds. The Avs connected for three goals in a 2:53 span overall to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 lead.
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The Sabres handed an easy standing point to an Atlantic Division rival. And while Jack Quinn earned Buffalo a 5-4 win with his highlight-reel shootout goal, the Sabres' bad habits reared their ugly head again.
The Sabres entered the game fifth in the NHL in goals (3.70 per game), but 28th in goals against (3.61). They were the only team in the league to have six players with at least eight goals, and they already have four in double figures. It's notable that Colorado has no player with more than eight goals.
But the Sabres make just enough mistakes and don't get enough saves when they need to. That's 16 goals against over three games in the last four nights. That's four goals or more against for the 10th time in 14 games.
"The last three games, especially, it's been special teams. That has swung momentum," coach Don Granato said. "It's less systematic when you go through it on the film, more what we're doing with the puck. When you gain experience, you gain a little bit more calm with the puck. We're hitting skates with the real anxiety on a possession. And then it's going back before we can even defend."
The Sabres' penalty kill somehow went 7 for 7 Wednesday in Detroit, salvaging a trainwreck of a third period long enough for the club to pull out a shootout victory. The Sabres entered Thursday 26th in the NHL on the penalty kill and 30th at home. Three more goals against dropped the home rating to a ghastly 65.2 percent, and there's a good chance that will be dead last when the numbers are calculated again Friday morning.
Buffalo has taken 17 penalties in the last three games, and just doesn't have the defensive structure or goaltending to survive that. All manner of stick fouls have burned the Sabres. Owen Power earned delay of game calls for pucks over the glass on back to back nights and took a high-sticking call on a faceoff Thursday that left his team two men down for 1:56 in the key second-period sequence.
“I think you can see more and more confidence every week or every day,” Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson said of his defense partner, Dahlin.
Those are plays the 20-year-old Power probably won't make when he's 21.
"Attention to detail, a lot of them are stick penalties," Mattias Samuelsson said when asked how the Sabres can stop the penalty parade. "Get that extra stride in and using your body more, instead of reaching. It's probably one solution off the top my head, but I still have to look back at how they happen."
"The flow on the bench, flow of the game, it definitely screws some stuff up," Sabres winger Alex Tuch said. "You go with one penalty against, and it's really good. Everyone is able to get into the game, stay in the game and you don't start skipping over guys. ... A five on three, there's a good chance they're going to score on a five on three when you give it to them."
Colorado superstar Nathan MacKinnon had four of his five points in the first 40 minutes, including a pair of goals, and made a huge defensive play to get back and stop what looked like a sure breakaway for former Colorado teammate Tyson Jost in the final 90 seconds. The Sabres have been burned by star players of late. Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov has seven points in two games against them. Sebastian Aho of Carolina notched a hat trick. So did some guy from Vegas named Eichel.
Now comes MacKinnon, who has nine goals and 21 points in 14 career games against Buffalo.
With the Buffalo Sabres clinging to a one-goal lead, Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov tied the score with 2:02 left in regulation to send the game to overtime, and Steven Stamkos scored the game winner to send the Sabres to a 6-5 loss at KeyBank Center.
"He's one of the best players in the world. He buzzes. He's really good," said Tuch, who saw plenty of MacKinnon in Vegas. "You give him chances, more times than not, he's going to bury them. They shut him out last game in Winnipeg. So I'm thinking it's tough to shut him out two games in a row."
The Avs were coming off a dreary 5-0 loss Tuesday in Winnipeg, and you're not shutting them down like that in two consecutive games. MacKinnon played 25:09, had eight shots on goal and 10 attempts. Defenseman Cale Makar, the Conn Smythe Trophy winner in June, played a stunning 30:38 in the game, collecting two assists while piling up six shots and nine attempts.
You almost felt bad for rookie goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. He gave up five goals on 33 shots before Mikko Rantanen salted the game away on an empty-netter. Not much he could do on most of them, save for J.T. Compher's second-period goal, which Luukkonen fed to the middle for a huge rebound and then got beat by Compher high glove.
Too many scoring chances, too many penalties, not enough saves. A shame, really. Tage Thompson scored another highlight reel goal. Dylan Cozens piled up three points and is definitely your No. 2 center. Jack Quinn and JJ Peterka combined for a picturesque 2-on-1 goal that looked as easy as it did last year in Rochester, and this one came against the Stanley Cup champs. Tuch's goal at seven seconds of third brought Buffalo in range for the final 19 minutes.
You see plenty of offense when you come to a Sabres game, these days. They just can't keep the puck out of their net. It's not a recipe for success in the standings. But it's certainly not dull to watch.
