Buffalo Sabres Blow Lead Late, Lose In SO To Florida
The Buffalo Sabres wind up on the wrong side of history in the Sunshine state thanks to the ageless one and the league’s most embarrassing shootout roster!
Stop me if you have heard this one before: the Buffalo Sabres lost 4-3 in a shootout tonight and . . . .
Oh, right. You’ve definitely heard that one before. Sigh.
This is one of those times when Sabres fans could be happy that their team even got a point. Buffalo was down 1-0 after getting outshot 16-4 in the first period, and found themselves down 2-0 with under 8 minutes remaining in the second after Keith Yandle scored a power play goal.
Still, you have to give the team this much at least: they rarely allow themselves to be blown out completely. The Sabres tied the game when Sam Reinhart and Evander Kane scored two goals in the span of 1:10, and Rasmus Ristolainen continued to give advanced stat geeks the bird when he picked up his second point of the evening by scoring on this nifty snap shot from the slot:
Keep talking about Corsi and Fenwick, fellas: we’ll take Risto and his 23 points, which just happens to be fifth-best among all NHL defensemen.
Eventually, the good vibes would end for Buffalo Sabres fans, as the Panthers managed to tie the game with under four minutes to go, as Nick Bjugstad would benefit from some nice puck movement courtesy of Alexsander Barkov and Jaromir Jagr, that old fart, I mean legend. The assist was Jagr’s third of the night, which means the ageless one made history tonight courtesy of the Sabres:
#1,887 POINTS! @68Jagr TIIES MESSIER in 2nd Place in #NHLHistory! #JaromirJagr #Amazing! #flapanthers #Panthers #FLA #NHL pic.twitter.com/Ab4eApyKh2
— Peter Clooney (@PeterClooney) December 21, 2016
Regulation ended in a tie, coach Dan Bylsma decided to use players such as Dmitry Julikov and Johan Larsson over Reinhart in OT, and the game went to a shootout and . . . yeah.
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As a result of another one of those “If only” games, the Buffalo Sabres win a point, but fail to make a significant move up in the standings. Buffalo has now lost a league-high 8 games in OT, and Sabres goalies are dead last in the NHL with a .286 save percentage in the SO (stat courtesy of Mike Harrington). We’ll have more to say on the Sabres’ OT and SO woes, but suffice it to say, this team cannot afford to keep leaving points on the table like it has for two years running now. Something has to be done to help this team win games, ASAP.
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