Complete Breakdown Sinks Buffalo Sabres Against Red Wings

The Buffalo Sabres Losing streak falls to 11 games as they drop a heartbreaker to the Detroit Red Wings. A lot of good things happened at the start of the game, but for some reason it still ended up falling apart altogether. The Sabres had a great jump in their step, and you could see that they were ready to finally win a game, but after the first period they broke down and ended up folding against the pressure of the Detroit offense.

Of all the things to go wrong, for once it was not the offense. The defensive effort was terrible. I can’t sugar coat it even for a second, or make an excuse for the atrocious play in our own zone. The defense gave no support to their goaltender tonight and it cost them dearly.

Penalty trouble added to the dejected play of the Buffalo Sabres and took the jump out of the step of every player.

The first period was the only good thing about tonight’s game and the Red Wings proved why they were better than that period. Their coach, Mike Babcock, looked irritated beyond belief in his first period interview and he must have given his players a stern “what for” in the locker room in between periods. The Red Wings responded to being outscored by the Buffalo Sabres by putting in 5 unanswered goals to take a 5-3 lead. The final score was 6-4.

I’m not sure if anyone else noticed, but at the end of the game, despite being down by only 2 goals, Ted Nolan decided not to pull his goalie for the extra attacker. That, to me, seems like a loss of faith in his own team’s ability to come back and win a game. The only exception to the disgusting play throughout the night was Tyler Ennis. Ennis not only potted 2 goals, but he also was the only player (aside from Zemgus Girgensons as usual) moving his feet the entire time.

There are a number of changes that need to be made to this team in order to make it better and we all know that, but Tim Murray needs to come up with a solution to this losing streak by making a deal to bring in some higher quality players. This streak now hits 11 games. That will not benefit a player’s confidence.

I’m not a man that likes the idea of being in last place. It sucks actually and it frustrates me to my core. I can only imagine what it feels like to be a player in that position and having to skate every night just knowing that you are bound to lose. It has gotten to a point where it is barely even like watching a hockey game. It is more like a slaughter and the opposing teams are the restaurant guests playing around with their food until it is tender. The Buffalo Sabres need to figure out what to fix in their game as a team. A leader to unite them and bring them back to the other side of the win-loss column.

The long awaited return of Captain Brian Gionta will make a difference to this team. Maybe the All-Star break is the perfect time to have everyone recovered and ready to come out guns blazing for the last stretch of the season.

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