When the Buffalo Sabres traded Zack Kassian to the Vancouver Canucks for Cody Hodgson, they thought they were trading toughness away to get some scoring talent back.
However, last night it was Kassian who added the scoring touch to a 4-2 Vancouver victory.
Kassian assisted on all for Canucks goals while the Sabres managed just 18 shots – none by Cody Hodgson – for their eighth loss in nine games.
Buffalo got out to a quick start thanks to, who else, Tyler Ennis, who scored in the first 80 seconds on a nice wrist shot past Eddie Lack. Jamie McBain added to the lead two minutes later, finishing off a nice break-out play with his fourth of the season.
However, before the period was over, the Canucks would tie things up on goals by Brad Richardson and Shawn Matthias. But the second period would ultimately doom the Sabres – Nathan Lieuwen misplayed a long wrist shot from Canucks defenseman Yannick Weber and let in on of the softest goals of the Sabres season.
Buffalo wouldn’t recover, or score again, losing once again and remaining 11 points behind the 29th ranked Oilers.
Three Questions
1. Will the Sabres continue their offensive “explosion”, or are we in for another one-goal game tonight?
Well, we didn’t get a one goal game, but the Sabres offense didn’t look much better than that, scoring just two goals on only 18 shots.
2. What will Nathan Lieuwen look like in a start just outside his hometown?
Lieuwen made 32 saves, but the only one people will remember is the save he should have made on Yannick Weber. No NHL team can afford to let in easy goals like that, let alone the lowest scoring team in the league.
3. The Canucks are honoring Henrik Sedin for his 1000th NHL game. Will he put up some fireworks for the hometown fans?
Nope.
Three Stars
1. Zack Kassian– four assists
2. Shawn Mattihas – 1g, 2a
3. Brad Richardson – 1g, 1a
Comment of the Game
Well…
that sucked.