When the Buffalo Sabres score six goals, one would think that they had a very good night and that they walked away with a dominating win. On Tuesday night against the Winnipeg Jets, they never held the lead until the score went final. The Sabres scored a 6-5 overtime victory to push their record to 9-5 on the season.
The offense stole the show for the Sabres and it had to be good with such shaky defense and goaltending behind it. The special teams accounted for five of the six goals, four on the power play and one shorthanded. Derek Roy scored twice on the power play and Thomas Vanek scored his two goals on the power play as well. Jason Pominville registered one goal, which was the shorthanded goal, and two assists on the night and Corey Tropp had his first professional goal, the lone even strength goal for the Sabres. The Sabres had a season high 45 shots on goal against a Winnipeg team that gave up 12 power play opportunities on the night.
It seemed like deja vu for Sabres fans during the start of this game as Ryan Miller allowed two goals on three shots in the first five minutes of the game. He wasn’t pulled though and finished the night making 25 saves on 30 shots on goal. He did not look solid all night and gave up juicy rebounds and couldn’t seem to cleanly cover and handle the puck. The defense did bail on him on most of the goals that were allowed, but in the same respect he just didn’t look good.
The defense for the Buffalo Sabres didn’t look very good either with a bunch of defensive miscues, dumb penalties, and overall terrible play. The leading offender was Tyler Myers, who ended the game with an assist and a -3. He looked very slow and tentative out on the ice and because of that lack of confidence he just didn’t look effective at all. Andrej Sekera was a -3 on the night as well because he and Myers have been playing as a pair for the last couple of games.
The Sabres will try and work out their issues as they have two divisional games coming up this weekend with the Ottawa Senators on Friday night and the Boston Bruins on Saturday night.