Flat Buffalo couldn’t hold on to a third period lead against Boston
Boxscore
Score: Buffalo Sabres 3-4 Boston Bruins OT
Shots: BUF 25-31 BOS
Buffalo Sabres Goals: Zucker 21 PPG (Thompson, Quinn); Benson 10 (Unassisted); Zucker 22 PPG (Thompson)
Boston Bruins Goals: Pastrnak 29 (Minten, Khusnutdinov); Arvidsson 20 (Pastrnak, Zadorov); Mittelstadt 14 (Unassisted); Zacha 24 (Pastrnak, McAvoy)
Quick Thoughts
Welcome Back Carolina!
Before we get to the hockey, first things first, and nothing comes before family. This week we heard that Rasmus Dahlin’s fiancee Carolina Matovac was cleared to travel and that she was on her way back to Buffalo to be with the Sabres’ captain. Ms. Matovac was at the game tonight and what a rousing welcome she received when she was shown on the jumbotron. Dahls was certainly pumped up because he took a penalty 21 seconds into the game crosschecking Arvidsson.
Also, look at that smile on Ras’ face when he looked up to see her on the screen, just carries himself with so much class and reserve at all times! 💙💛💙💛💙💛
Road Hangover
The Sabres started this one slow, almost like they were still operating on West Coast time. They just didn’t look like themselves for long periods of the first and made the cardinal error of not keeping track of where Pastrnak was when the puck was behind their goal, and as he always does, the sniper made them pay.
Buffalo’s much-maligned power play has looked ordinary at times even against poor penalty kills, but on their first attempt after Ryan McLeod was tripped by Lindholm, Jason Zucker made the Bruins pay with a shot that beat Joonas Korpisalo at the far post to level things for the first period.
Shake It Off!
The second period somehow was even worse, with passes going astray and Buffalo looking more like the team that was on the second night of a back-to-back than the visitors. At some level, the Bruins are the more desperate team and despite being not good on the road they were the better team for large parts of this game.
The Sabres got caught moving up the ice without actually clearing the zone, and despite UPL’s great poke check on Pasta, the puck went straight to Arvidsson who beat the goalie at the near post, 2-1 Bruins.
Third Period Drama
The Sabres came right back in the third stanza as they have so often this season. First Zach Benson (Sabres player of the week for last week) victimized Lohrei, nicking the puck off the defensemen and stuffing it home to level things five minutes into the third. The punishment was not over for the Bruins player who was penalized for crosschecking the Sabres forward with Zucker getting his second power play marker of the game off a nifty pass cross the blue paint from Tage Thompson.
Suddenly Buffalo were back in the lead after the two goals in barely thirty seconds and looking pretty comfortable.
Concerns Holding Leads?
On Sunday in Anaheim the Sabres did a great job scoring three times in the third to not only erase a two-goal deficit but also take the lead. An errant penalty from Alex Tuch led to a 6-on-4 where the Ducks tied the game, and then went on to win in overtime.
That was on the road, in the last game of a four-stop road trip on the West Coast.
Tonight, a bad bounce for Buffalo allowed former Sabre Casey Mittelstadt to level the scores with exactly six minutes left on the clock. Then Buffalo didn’t even touch the puck in overtime with Tuch cheating to cover Pastrnak with Dahlin allowed Zacha to go in open on UPL, and the forward scored five-hole to settle the game in overtime.
That’s two games now the Sabres have had, and failed to hold, the lead in the third period. We can only hope there are lessons being learned here by the young squad; closing out games is an essential aspect for any kind of playoff run.
At The Horn
In a game they spent long periods not looking like themselves, we can probably be grateful the Sabres were able to grab a point. There is still room for improvement, and that’s not a bad thing either.
The Sabres end up going 1-1-2 against the Bruins this season, and won’t want to play them in the playoffs – there’s just something in that match-up that doesn’t work for Buffalo.
The Sabres top defense pair had a forgettable game tonight. It’s not often that has happened this season, and we can probably attribute it to Ras having an emotional night. After Dahlin got back from Sweden after his little break to go see Carolina, he went on a generational tear. Now that she’s back here with him, hopefully he can relax and get back to playing his best. To be fair, none of the Sabres D stood out tonight.
Also, Josh Doan had that rare off-game as well, which didn’t help things.