The Buffalo Sabres lost their franchise record ninth straight game tonight, and boy did they do it in spectacular fashion.
The Sabres lost to the Minnesota Wild, a team playing so poorly lately that many thought they could fire their coach if this game went sour, by the amazing score of 7-0. We’ll start by saying that some of those goals were unfortunate deflections, but still. The Sabres lost 7-0 in an era where most games don’t have seven total goals, let alone all for one team. It was simply an awful two-and-a-half hours to be a Sabres fan, and the players and coaches knew it too.
After the game, Ted Nolan was “speechless”. Nick Deslauriers was “disgusted”, and Ennis said the team “deserves every boo we get”. Players were apologizing after the game and there was talk from Ennis that there’s been some yelling and screaming among the players lately.
Whatever they’re feeling, and whatever was said (or screamed) in the locker room obviously didn’t work, as the Sabres were destroyed by an opponent many thought wasn’t much better than the home team.
Some of the youngsters played well (check out Zadorov, Ennis and Flynn’s possession stats if you want to feel a bit better) and Nick Deslauriers had a heck of a fight in the first period, but other than that it was a depressing affair, to say the least.
Three Questions
1. Both of these teams are mired in huge slumps. Will either of the take control of the game, or will this be an exercise in mutual futility?
The Wild took control of the game from the very beginning, and spent the next 50 minutes choking the Sabres to sleep. Aside from the horribly lopsided score, the Wild outshot the listless Sabres
2. Ted Nolan moved Tyler Myers to the front of the net on the Sabres power play, but will it spark the worst unit in the league?
LOLOLOL nope.
3. How will Nikita Zadorov look returning to the lineup after two games in the press box?
Let’s be honest, nobody looked very good tonight, but Zadorov was one of two players (along with Ennis) to finish the game without a negative +/- rating, and he led the Sabres in TOI. Good for him for responding so (relatively) well.
Comment of the Game
Just can’t watch anymore tonite
its too painful
There there, shhhh, it’s OK. We’ll all get through this together.
Highlights
You must be joking.