The Buffalo Sabres suffered a tough loss to the San Jose Sharks tonight, and it was quite the game to watch. Tensions flared, some big saves were made, and the Buffalo Sabres overall effort was stellar for almost the entire night. The Buffalo Sabres fell to the Sharks by a score of 2-1 in overtime, with the game deciding goal being scored by Patrick Marleau on a huge rebound given up by Chad Johnson, but I want to take this time to look at the positives that this game had to offer, because the scoreboard did not reflect what I was watching.
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Right from the get go in this game, the San Jose Sharks started to put pressure on the Sabres defense and it drew a penalty early on defenseman Jake McCabe. That penalty lead to the first San Jose goal, scored by Marc-Eduard Vlasic. After that goal was scored, it took a few minutes, but the Buffalo Sabres bounced right back and were controlling the game.
After the first goal against, there was a lively jump in ever Sabres players’ step. Jack Eichel was flying to make plays happen, Rasmus Ristolainen was stepping up and making hits, Josh Gorges was stepping up at the blue line and being more aggressive, and Ryan O’Reilly was a two-way machine all night.
Ryan O’Reilly was the absolute star of this game for many reasons.
Ryan O’Reilly was the player for Buffalo that spent his entire night doing anything and everything to gain momentum, and put a goal on the board. He was winning face-offs (of which he went 17/27) left and right, and he was pressuring the puck in the offensive zone. If my count is at least close, O’Reilly had at least 6 takeaways in tonight’s game, and one in particular lead to the only Sabres goal in the third period. He stole the puck from Paul Martin on the boards and then walked in and fired a top shelf-top-corner-slap-shot-snipe on Martin Jones.
The excitement displayed in O’Reilly’s celebration mimicked that of the crowd, and it was a well deserved goal for sure.
Besides O’Reilly’s stellar play, there were some heavy hits being thrown in tonight’s game. Three times a Buffalo Sabres player was victimized from a big hit and was down on the ice for an extended period of time. First was Cody Franson, then Tyler Ennis, and then Zemgus Girgensons. Besides possibly the hit on Girgensons (which looked a little high to me) the other ones were clean but hard. Thankfully, every single one of the Sabres that went down at some point got back up, made it to the bench on their own power, and then returned to the game.
I find that is a time to count our blessings that nothing worse happened to any one of those three key players. I would have liked to see a bit more of a reaction from players like Nicolas Deslauriers or Marcus Foligno on a couple of these hits, but instead it was Carlo Colaiacovo that was getting his nose dirty. That was an inspiring sight to see him jump in and defend his teammates in some way (so hats off to you tonight Carlo).
Tonight’s game may have been a loss, and it may move the Sabres to 8-8-1 in their record, but the teamwork and the overall effort was there. Scoring chances were being made left and right by every line, but for some reason, the Sabres could not solve Martin Jones.
Next: Sabres Need Offense From Cody Franson
I look forward to round two of this small series later in the season in February.