Craig Anderson's reunion with his old team produced a disappointing result for the Buffalo Sabres. It wasn't the veteran goaltender's fault.
In a 1-1 tie through 40 minutes against an opponent with a minus-27 goal differential in third periods, the Sabres did nothing with a game available to be taken. They had just four shots on goal in the third period – none in the first 15 minutes – and suffered a 3-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators Thursday in KeyBank Center.
The loss denied Anderson his 298th career victory and prevented the Sabres' first three-game win streak since October. But Anderson, Ottawa's all-time leader with 202 victories, was at least happy to see old friends on and off the ice.
"It's just good to see them, smile at them," said Anderson, who was in Ottawa from 2011-2020. "And, you know, they think it's great that I'm still 40 and still playing. I think it's great that they still laugh at me."
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Overall, however, there wasn't much to laugh at in this one.
"We've talked about young this-young that and this tonight was that to me," said coach Don Granato. "We felt like, 'OK, we won a couple games, and we can just flip the switch on.' And we thought we could just flip it. And you can't do that in competition at this level."
Neither team had a shot on goal over the first eight minutes of a scrambly third period where the puck seemed more like a hot potato. The Senators started imposing their will and got the go-ahead goal with 9:11 left as Austin Watson tipped Nick Holden's shot from the left point off the goalpost and past Anderson.
"I think it hit Watson in the leg and just kind of just enough to redirect that," Anderson said. "Just one of those things where they were doing enough things right there. They were hemming us in our own zone, we were tired, and they just started throwing pucks at the net and they got a bounce."
The Sabres, meanwhile, didn't get a shot on Anton Forsberg until Rasmus Dahlin's routine flip was gloved with 4:52 left. It drew a Bronx cheer from the season-low crowd of 7,026 for a makeup game on a bad-weather night.
"I think it was an accumulation of not doing our job well enough in the first two periods, and they took the game over in the third because there was accumulation on the wrong side," said Granato. "We didn't get pucks to where we could pursue and we made the game much more difficult on ourselves."
"The whole game was a little jumbled. Not a lot of flow in the first two periods," said Kyle Okposo. "But I just think that they were more committed to their game plan and give them a lot of credit."
The Sabres took the lead on Okposo's power-play goal at 13:37 of the first period but Ottawa tied it on Zach Sanford's curl and stuff past Anderson on the edge of the crease at 16:04 of the second period. Tage Thompson had a chance at a tying goal late but Anton Forsberg made the save. Brady Tkachuk hit the empty net with 17 seconds left.
Here are some other observations from game day:
1. Power play struggles
The Sabres were just 1 for 6 on the power play, despite 10 shots on goal and lots of zone time. They entered the game 16th in the NHL on the power play – and 11th at home at 24.6%.
"We just didn't execute at the level that we usually do," Okposo said. "I give them a lot of credit. All they did was work. That's all they did. And we struggled getting entry into the zone and seemed to frustrate us a little bit, especially on the power play."
Buffalo Sabres forward Kyle Okposo scores against the Ottawa Senators during the first period at KeyBank Center on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022.
Buffalo got three chances with the man advantage in the first period and converted the third on Okposo's highlight-reel goal at 13:37 off a perfect cross-ice stretch pass from Rasmus Asplund. Okposo streaked in alone down the right wing and completely fooled Forsberg with a nifty deke before depositing the puck into an empty net.
"I just tried to get open and for him to recognize that their 'D' were shaded over on the strong side was huge," Okposo said. "All I had to do was catch the pass and do the rest."
RJ: "Well, the old guy has got a move or two left yet." https://t.co/qgFg1sUoU0
— Mike Harrington (@ByMHarrington) February 18, 2022
2. Mittelstadt is just about ready
The next steps for Mittelstadt are uncertain. Buffalo Sabres coach Don Granato expressed hope that Mittelstadt can be considered day to day, but it was too soon to lay out a timeline to return.
The Sabres are encouraged with the progress of center Casey Mittelstadt, who has been out since Jan. 30 dealing with lingering effects of the upper-body injury that forced him to have surgery in December and has played just seven games all season. They have pushed Mittelstadt hard in practice and morning skates this week and it's likely he will return on the weekend.
"We're trying to calm him down a little bit. He had a really good day yesterday and a hard day yesterday," General Manager Kevyn Adams said of Mittelstadt's work on Wednesday with assistant coach Matt Ellis. "Matt was trying to give him game-like simulation, shift length, all that stuff. And he responded well. What I told Casey, and he's such a competitive kid, is we're trying to set him up for success, and not you're gonna play three out of four (games). We want to let him just roll.""
3. Around the boards
As part of the club's continuing rotation on defense, Mattias Samuelsson sat out the game and Robert Hagg returned to the lineup. Jacob Bryson took over Samuelsson's slot next to Casey Fitzgerald.
Eichel played 17:24, had one shot on goal and a minus-1 rating.
4. Next
The Sabres have a huge test here Saturday afternoon at 1 against Colorado, which improved to an NHL-best 35-9-4 with Wednesday's 2-0 win in Vegas that spoiled Jack Eichel's debut for the Golden Knights. Kids Day tickets are available for $15 with the purchase of a regularly-priced adult ticket.
The Sabres have lost six straight to the Avs, all in regulation, and have been outscored, 27-9, in those games. Colorado's last two visits to Buffalo, in 2018 and 2020, both resulted in 6-1 victories.
