Buffalo Sabres: Who Earned Their Paycheck Against The Vancouver Canucks?

The Buffalo Sabres should be disappointed with the results of Thursday night’s loss in Vancouver, but there were some bright spots in an otherwise forgettable game.

Fellow Buffalo Sabres fans, I feel like I owe you an apology.

Not because anything I’ve done, mind you – I regret nothing.

No, I owe an apology to those of you who stayed up to watch #SabresAfterDark, because watching the Sabres lose 2-1 to the still-undefeated Vancouver Canucks was pure torture.

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Actually, the Buffalo Sabres organization owes you an apology, for allowing a bunch of lethargic players, most of whom appear to be in no hurry to man up and provide a boost following the loss of Jack Eichel and Evander Kane, to continue to skate in a professional hockey game last night.  But since the Sabres won’t publicly offer you their condolences, I’ll go ahead and say it:

I’m sorry you had to see that.

Now, onto the few bright spots from last night’s game, because there were some players who looked ready to play.  Just like last season, when losing one-goal games was the norm, the efforts of a few individuals put this team in a position to win a game it had no business winning, so here are the heroes from last night.

1. Robin Lehner

I’ll start with the goaltender that so many people love to hate.  Yes, I still have questions about whether he is good enough to help the Sabres win playoff games (if this damn team ever gets there).  And yes, I shared my opinion that he should shut his mouth and focus on getting better, instead of complaining about the refs in Buffalo’s 4-3 loss to Calgary.

But let’s face it: Lehner was solid in goal last night, giving up a goal on a semi-rebound that was more the fault of Zach Bogosian failing to get back and take out his man than anything Lehner did wrong, and a power-play goal that featured vintage passing by the Sedin brothers.   Not convinced that the first goal wasn’t Lehner’s fault?  Get educated:

Yes, I think Lehner often struggles to control rebounds, but go back and watch that first goal and see how much the puck bounced off Lehner’s blocker.  There wasn’t a damn thing he could about it.   It’s too easy to throw a goalie under the bus when a team loses a close game, but if your goalie can allow 2 goals on the road, he’s doing enough to keep you in the game.

2. Matt Moulson

I think the Sabres scoring line of Ryan O’Reilly, Kyle Okposo and Sam Reinhart produced a lot of scoring chance, so I don’t mean to slight them, but Moulson continues to look like a man on a mission.  Last night, he had some really good scoring chances in close to the net.  The fact that he didn’t bury any is due to a shutdown performance by Canucks goaltender Jacob Markstrom, who was good enough to earn the shutout.  (I realize a goal was scored – thanks to the puck deflecting off not one, but two of his defensemen.  Markstrom did not technically allow any Sabres player to score.) If Moulson keeps attacking the front of the net like he has been, he’ll score over 20 goals this season, easily.

And lest you think I only look at Moulson’s scoring, I’m here to tell you: he is playing a physical game this season.  Throwing his body around, mixing it up on the boards and in front of the net – I know he’s not the sort of player we can count on to score 30 goals this season, but if you don’t see an improved effort from this guy, then I don’t know what to tell you.

3. Nick Baptiste

Technically, he scored his first NHL career goal last night.  That deserves a nod, even if it was more of a Vancouver own-goal than anything else.

Were there other Buffalo Sabres who performed okay?  Sure – at times.  But even Okposo and O’Reilly, whose line generated the best scoring chances, committed some pretty sloppy turnovers. Overall, it was a disappointing effort from a Sabres team that is no responding to adversity very well right now.  We’ll see what weekend off can do when the Sabres take on the Philadelphia Flyers next Tuesday.