Buffalo Sabres Start Next Chapter With Loss To Senators

The Buffalo Sabres start off their 2015-16 season with a heartbreaking and frustrating loss to the Ottawa Senators. In a game that was determined by multiple big factors, the Buffalo Sabres fought with all they had in the third period despite their luck being terrible. Despite the loss itself, there was a bit of positivity to be had from the game as a whole, but it will need to be taken with a grain of salt.

Related – Do Bills Or Sabres Have A Better Season?

The first game of the year, and this season was going to rest not only on the offense producing, but on the stability of the goaltending as well (very similar to how the success of the Buffalo Bills this season is dependent on their unique position, the quarterback). In this game, the Buffalo Sabres suffered a major setback in this department with freak injury to goalie Robin Lehner. Lehner left the game with an apparent leg injury in the second period and did not return.

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Before being injured and leaving the game, Lehner only surrendered one goal to the Senators and was playing pretty well otherwise.

The team that was in front of Lehner seemed to be lacking some energy. Some failed power plays, a couple of tough goals, and an injured goalie seemed to suck the life from them pretty well.

But just when all seemed lost, the Sabres were awarded a power play in the middle of the third period. Not too long into it and a pass to the side of the net to Jack Eichel found the Buffalo Sabres only trailing 2-1 with about eleven minutes left. Eichel hesitated to shoot the puck at first to settle it down, and then he ripped the puck top shelf short side on Craig Anderson. For a first goal of his career, it was a beauty and an absolute snipe.

Not too long after Eichel’s goal came a bit of a sticky situation. Evander Kane had appeared to score on a wrap around attempt and Buffalo was (for the moment) tied 2-2 with the Senators. But then came the Sens coach using his newly acquired coach’s challenge to check if the goal was a good one. This rule only applies after goals are scored, and a coach can challenge if the play may involve an offside or goaltender interference (which Mike Babcock won in Toronto’s game last night).

The Senators coach challenged the Kane goal to check for an offside before the play. When reviewed, the goal was called back as Zemgus Girgensons went offside when Mark Pysyk carried the puck in the zone. Did it suck that the goal was called back? Yes. But the fact is that the right call was made, which is ultimately a good thing.

In the end, the goal being called back not only was the dagger in the Sabres back, but it was a demonstration of how the challenge can be used, and possibly abused. Should a coach lose his challenge, his team is charged with their timeout, which seems like a pretty uneven trade considering that the usual timeout is only thirty seconds, while this reviewed play took more than two minutes to do. This can easily be abused by a coach that needs a long timeout to settle down his players, or to kill the momentum gained by the opposing team (which is exactly what happened in tonight’s game). The game itself slowed down and the crowd’s energy was depleted after that.

This game was disappointing in the loss of Robin Lehner and the overall loss, but it showed some positive things about the key players that were being watched. Jack Eichel shined once again and we can all hope he will continue to do so in future games.

Next: Will Eichel Win The Calder Trophy?

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