Sabres Giveaway Two Points

What a difference a day makes.  On Friday night the Sabres erased a one goal deficit heading into the third period but on Saturday they could not solve Carey Price in the third and fell 3-2 to the Montreal Canadiens.Just one night after playing their best game of the season, Buffalo made a couple of costly mistakes in a losing effort.

Patrick Kaleta had the first bad giveaway when he lost the puck in his skates allowing the Habs to capitize and tie the game at one.  Later in the game it was Max Afinogenov that gave the puck away and the puck found it's way into the back of the net.  I would guess that Max will be in the press box again on Monday and his days in Buffalo are numbered after another poor performance.  After his giveaway with just under eight minutes left in the second period, he played only seven more shifts the rest of the evening.

There is no mistaking that Montreal is a great hockey team but this is a gam ethe Sabres had in their grasp and let it slip away.  Buffalo led 1-0 and 2-1 but allowed Montreal to score the games final two goals for the victory.  Like Friday night Buffalo had to kill off a two man advantage and did.  Against Pittsburgh it seemed to turn the momentum of the game and propel the Sabres to victory but tonight it was all Montreal.  Montreal out shot Buffalo 10-8 in the third period but the Sabres had the majority of their shots in the final three minutes.

The Sabres had two great opportunities to to tie the game in the final minute but Carey Price made a huge save and Than Derek Roy fired a shot over the top of the net.  Roy's shot turned out to be the Sabres last good opportunity with about 40 seconds left in the game.

Overall it wasn't a bad game for the Sabres but the result is disappointing.  Beside being disappointed in the loss, they have to be disappointed in the way it happened.  A couple of real bad giveaways and blowing a one goal lead on two different occasions.

Thomas Vanek led the way for the Sabres offensively scoring his 16th goal of the season on the power play and later scoring his 17th goal of the season.  The Sabres have scored six goals in the last two games but the goals were scored by just three different players.  Stafford and Gaustad each scored two on Friday and tonight Vanek netted two for Buffalo.

Patrick Lalime played in place of Miller tonight.  Miller was given the evening off after a great game last night against the Pittsburgh Penguins.  Lalime played fairly well and made 31 saves in the loss.  Lalime was especially good early in the game when Montreal put on plenty of pressure.  Lalime made 13 saves in the first period to allow Buffalo to lead 1-0 after a period.

Harry Neale Quote of the Game

Harry Neale was not on top of his game tonight and didn't really give me much to choose from.  The good news is that I forgot to post the quote last night so here is a little nugget from last nights game...

"Sidney Crosby is so crafty that he goes into a revolving door after you and he comes out before you"

I laughed out loud at that little bit of wisdom.

Roll Call

Another slow night at Die by the Blade but thanks to qdloser, yoman and Tony O. for sharing with us during the game thread.  You too can join the game thread on Monday when the Sabres meet the Nashville Predators at the HSBC Arena.