Buffalo stymied by Gustavsson, doomed by poor second period
Score: Buffalo Sabres 1-4 Minnesota Wild
Shots: BUF 21-21 BOS
Buffalo Sabres Goals: Peterka (21)
Minnesota Wild Goals: Rossi (22), Brazeau (11), Zuccarello (17), Gaudreau (16)
Plus 1: Good First Period
Buffalo actually had a decent first period, believe it or not. They outshot their hosts 8-6, and generally were in the game, much like how they had started a couple of nights ago against Utah.
It’s the inconsistent effort that drives us all utterly bonkers, and guess what, we saw that last night too.
Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson is in sensational form right now, going 5-2-1 with a .939 save percentage in the month of March. He had a 34-save shutout in his last start against Seattle, and also logged a 39-save shut out in Buffalo in late November. He maintained that level of performance foiling the Sabres in the first period.
Minus 1: What Was That Second?
Just seconds into the second period, Marco Rossi with a snap shot from the slot beat Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. That was quickly followed by Justin Brazeau nudging the puck over the goalline with his foot, but the refs deemed it not a kicking motion. The meltdown was complete when Mats Zuccarello made it 3-0 with a shot from between the circles.
The Wild came into the game 27-0-0 when leading after two periods, so there was little to no chance that 100% record would be changed against the feeble Sabres.
Minus 2: Indiscipline
Jack Quinn was dropped from the lineup for missing a mandatory team meeting earlier this morning. Lindy Ruff later said it was just procedural and nothing to be concerned about. It was ironic then that Rossi opened the scoring in the game, given that the Sabres had chosen Quinn a spot ahead of him in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft.
The Benson – Cozens – Quinn kids line was supposed to be the one that propelled the Sabres to the playoffs this season, much like the trio of Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy and Jason Pominville turned the team around two decades ago. Instead one of them appears to be a problem child and is now gone, and another who is in the spotlight for diminished performance this season (albeit coming back from an injury) is now failing his audition to stay on the team next season.
Final Thoughts
The Sabres are slumping hard on the road again. That win in Boston seems a mirage, and against tougher Western Conference opposition Buffalo have gone to pieces. There appears to be very little positive to hang your hat on for next season.
A decent debut for defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker. Looked mobile enough and was on the ice for 11:29, though he had one concurrent penalty as well when he got into a spat with Marcus Johansson. He got to play on the right side of every one of the Sabres’ five left-handed defensemen, seeing the most time with Bowen Byram (3:25) and Rasmus Dahlin (3:18).
Comment of the Game: Today we’ll go with this eerily prescient comment from the first period, and the sheer irony of what BigDadEnergy is one of those things that if we don’t laugh at, we’ll just cry.
This team is way too competent to be last in the conference. It’s infuriating.
After starting their four-game road trip with a win, Buffalo have now dropped two in a row and will look to close it out with a win, though it would not be surprising if they are already looking ahead to Tuesday’s visit of Ottawa.