A poor effort in the City of Brotherly Love ends in a loss.
Score: Buffalo Sabres 2 | Philadelphia Flyers 5
Shots: BUF 25 | PHI 32
Buffalo Sabres Goals: Dahlin (5), McLeod (6)
Philadelphia Flyers Goals: Foerster (3), Sanheim (5), Zamula (1), Konecny (10, 11-EN)
Minus 1: All Falls Apart
The Sabres didn’t look great from the jump on Saturday, but things really started to go downhill late in the first period. With Zach Benson in the box on a slashing call, Tyson Foerster opened the scoring on the resulting man advantage. Just over two minutes later (2:03), Travis Sanheim makes it 2-0. Buffalo can’t muster much of anything in the last few minutes of the period, and then things go from bad to worse when Egor Zamula makes it 3-0 early in the second period.
Minus 2: Penalties
Twice tonight, the Sabres had a power play which was quickly negated by a Rasmus Dahlin penalty. The first power play, off a penalty to Travis Konecny midway through the game lasted only 14 seconds before Dahlin got tagged for interference. Later in the period, Emil Andrae was in the box for hooking for just 1:02 before Dahlin joined him in the counterpart box on a slashing call.
But, to his credit, Dahlin did score the team’s first goal midway through the third period — and on the man advantage! The Sabres then found themselves shorthanded just 20 seconds later, unfortunatel, and that point, it certainly didn’t help the matter. (Dahlin also had an assist on Buffalo’s second goal, and led the team with five shots.)
In total, the Sabres took six penalties to Philadelphia’s five, but it’s the ones that negated their power plays that hurt in a differnt way. As of writing, the Sabres have the #20 power play in the league at 17.9 percent, while their penalty kill, for those who may be curious, is ranked 23rd at 77.1 percent. The Flyers have the third-best penalty kill in the NHL at 87.1 percent, while their power play is 17th at 18.6 percent.
Minus 3: Levi Needs Work
It’s been said before and it’ll be said again, but Devon Levi really didn’t look good at spots of the night. With Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen still out, Levi was the obvious choice but it’s clear that he really needs to go down to the AHL’s Rochester Americans and get some work there. But when that happens isn’t clear at this point. With the Sabres about to head out to California for a few games, and UPL hopefully on the mend, it may still be a good idea to hold onto Levi for the trip just in case and continue to carry three goalies.
Levi ended the night with 27 saves on 31 shots faced. He’s got two wins on the season so far with a 3.95 GAA and .870 save percentage.
Final Thoughts
Well, at least it’s over. This game wasn’t fun to watch, and if I wasn’t on tap for the recap, I may very well have turned it off after 2-0, 3-0 or 4-0. This team is incredibly frustrating to watch; they can put together great efforts and great games, three-game winning streaks and look like they know what they’re doing. Then, they can completely fall apart, look like they have no idea what’s going on and take bad penalties that put them in tough spots.
Dahlin said after tonight’s game that the team needs to look forward, and that “this can’t happen again.” You have to wonder how many times that’s been said over the past few years. Of course, he isn’t going to say much else, but let’s be real here. This can’t happen again, and then it does… and then again, and again, and again. His passion and effort is clear, but the problems lie much deeper.
In addition to being without Luukkonen, the Sabres were also still without Tage Thompson. Itr’s clear that he is on the mend, as Lindy Ruff said before the game that if this was a playoff game, he’d be playing, but he is undoubtedly a big asset to be missing. Jordan Greenway also missed Saturday’s game and his status going forward is unknown.
The Sabres have a few days off before their next game, as the Californaia road trip begins Wednesday night in Los Angeles. The Kings are second in the Pacific Division right now at 10-6-3, while Anaheim and San Jose sit at the bottom of the Pacific. Get your coffee ready, as the next three games are later starts! (I’d call it #SabresAfterDark, but with how early it gets dark nowadays, isn’t that just pretty much every game?)