Jhonas Enroth And Buffalo Sabres Finally Snap Losing Streak
THEY HAVE DONE IT!
They have indeed finally done it! The Buffalo Sabres have snapped their 14 game losing streak and beaten the Montreal Canadiens by a score of 3-2. After a winless month of January, the Sabres finally have had enough of the losing and have won their first game of February.
Let’s go over a few things as to how this came about.
First off, Jhonas Enroth was outstanding tonight. Finishing the game with a total of 32 saves. He made it clear by his play that he was fed up with all the losing and decided to take the reigns and win a game pretty much on his own will.
The Sabres as a team looked pretty good as a whole. The first two periods were what looked really promising. The first period featured Buffalo scoring three goals on seven shots. Those goals came courtesy of Drew Stafford, Matt Moulson, and Brian Gionta respectively. The whole Sabres team was pushing hard towards the net and pressuring the Montreal defense. They were wearing them down and forcing them to make mistakes. Those mistakes eventually are what seemed to have won it for the Sabres.
In all reality, Jhonas Enroth deserves most of the credit for tonight’s victory. Throughout the game he was seeing the puck well, moving smoothly and tracking the play well enough to stymie the Montreal forwards. He did have some help from his defensive core, but he was taking a good amount of quality scoring chances. Having only surrendered two goals is impressive under those circumstances.
Enroth was visibly frustrated towards the middle to tail end of the third period due to the fact that the Sabres could not get the puck out of the zone. This is where he proved his worth and the level of fight he truly has in him. Stopping 14 of 15 shots in the third period, Jhonas Enroth was the best player on the ice tonight overall.
Now the Sabres need to build on this success and string together a small set of wins in order to gain their confidence back. After all, this season is about learning lessons and knowing how to play at a high level. That is exactly the message that needs to relayed from the coaching staff to the players after winning. They need to find their rhythm and put together a better mentality.
All in all, the game was shaky, but they came out with a win. I know one thing for sure. Someone on the Sabres roster needs to buy Jhonas Enroth dinner after all the work he did tonight. One guy can buy him dinner, and then Ted Nolan can give him the night off on Thursday. He certainly has earned it. Let’s see if they can ride a little bit of momentum into something more than what we have been seeing lately. I know one thing for sure; I’ll be savoring this sweet sweet victory while it lasts.
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