Sabres Drop Sixth Straight to Blue Jackets

This game went pretty much how every game has gone in the month of November. The first period was nothing much to write home about. Neither team had a great scoring chance that stood out. The Sabres controlled the first part of the period and the Jackets controlled the second part of the period. Columbus held the advantage in shots 12-7 after the first 20 minutes.

Much like the first, the middle frame wasn’t anything that entertaining. The Sabres had a hard time getting any sustained pressure on the Jackets defense and it was a pretty easy night for Sergei Bobrovsky.

Blue Jackets got on the board first early in the second. The 2016 third overall pick Pierre-Luc Dubois scored his third of the season. Justin Falk pushed a Jackets forward into Robin Lehner and knocked down the big goaltender. The puck came back out front for an easy goal for Dubois.

The third period and the game for that matter started to get away from the Sabres. Artemi Panarin put a nice move on Marco Scandella and then beat Lehner far post to put his club up two goals.

Less than four minutes later some poor defensive zone coverage allowed Boone Jenner to tap in a loose puck to make it 3-0 in favor of the Blue Jackets with just over ten minutes remaining.

We appeared to be headed for another blowout, but just 13 seconds after the Jenner goal. Sam Reinhart deflected a Victor Antipin point shot past Bobrosky to get the Sabres on the board.

With a little over three minutes, the red-hot Evander Kane pulled the team within one. Jack Eichel made a nice pass to send Kane down the wing and in on the Jackets goals. He let go a nice shot that beat Bobrovsky just over the pad and under the glove.

The Sabres really pushed in the final minute as Seth Jones was called for holding with 1:55 left in the game. At one point, it even appeared they scored to tie the game, but it was inconclusive with the mass of bodies in front of the net.

Shortly after that Eichel rang a shot off the crossbar, but the Sabres were unable to get another puck by Bobrovsky. They give too little too late in this game and the losing streak is now up to six.

Final Score: Blue Jackets 3, Sabres 2

Shots on Goal: Blue Jackets 29 | Sabres 32

Blue Jackets Goal Scorers: Dubois (3), Panarin (5) and Jenner (3)

Sabres Goal Scorers: Reinhart (4) and Kane (12)

Three Stars

1. Sergei Bobrovsky (30 saves on 32 shots)

2. Artemi Panarin (1 G)

3. Evander Kane (1 G)

What to Watch

1. Can the Sabres stop their losing streak?

Nope. Six and counting.

2. How will the reshuffled lines do?

Not great. No real offense until late in the third period.

3. Eichel & Kane split up

Kane scored his goal when he was on the ice with Eichel.

Comment of the Game

I used to like watching hockey

specifically Sabres hockey. But I’m not even remotely entertained by this. Wasn’t even upset at the Panarin goal (not that it looks like they’ll even need it). Just utterly numb to it. Like yeah it was a good shot, but it looked like Lehner didn’t take it seriously and just played it as it was going wide and got bit by it. Like he was utterly confused that Panarin could shoot like that

by Nhlking1992 on Nov 20, 2017 | 9:08 PM reply rec (1) flag actions