Even a quarter of the way through the season, there is a chance to accomplish firsts in a season and the Sabres did that with their first shootout loss of the season to the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night. Benoit Pouliot scored the lone goal in the shootout to give the Bruins a 4-3 win, their 10th straight win and tied for the league lead 13th overall.
The Sabres fans and probably the players as well were looking for some blood after Milan Lucic’s hit on Ryan Miller in the last Bruins/Sabres matchup and the punishment was delivered within the first two minutes of the game as he and Gaustad squared off. Here is the fight in case you missed it:
After the fight, the Sabres played a quality 65 minute game as they outhit the Bruins 39-24 in the game. Nathan Gerbe led the team with eight hits of his own while Robyn Regher had six. Both teams were able to convert two of their power play opportunities, the Bruins going two for five and the Sabres going two for four.
The Sabres goals were scored by Thomas Vanek, T.J. Brennan, and Christian Ehrhoff while the Bruins goals were scored by Tyler Seguin, Brad Marchand, and Zdeno Chara. Jhonas Enroth made 36 saves in the losing effort while Tim Thomas made 31 saves for the win.
– Brad Boyes played a total of 4:17 before he was injured in the first period with a lower body injury. It appeared that Boyes either suffered an ankle sprain or a knee injury as his leg got caught under a Bruins player as he was going to go for a puck. The Sabres are probably going to have to call another player up from Rochester unless either Cody McCormick or Patrick Kaleta, both of who were scratched with injuries, can make it back to the lineup.
– Luke Adam had even less ice time than the injured Brad Boyes, 3:21 total, but it isn’t known if it was due to injury or just benched for bad play. Adam did register a slashing penalty in the first period, played until the 11:00 mark of the second period and then was sat for the rest of the game.
– Welcome to the NHL, TJ Brennan. While he had the least amount of ice time among the defensemen, 13:07 total, he did register his first NHL goal on the only shot that he had in the game.
The Buffalo Sabres will take U.S. Thanksgiving off and then will travel to Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets on Friday night.