Buffalo Sabres Struck Down by Tampa Bay Lighting
On Thursday evening, November 5, the Buffalo Sabres took to the ice at home against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
As the season progresses, the Sabres have been able to intercept passes more and more. The team was able to keep the puck in the Lightning zone for approximately 50 seconds at one point during the first period; however, this game was not the best for the Buffalo Sabres. The team got off to a bad start, and it ended up setting up the failure of tonight’s match up.
The first period of this game was anything but decent as far as the Sabres were concerned. In the first 20 minutes of this game alone, Buffalo was out shot by Tampa Bay 11 to 8.
More importantly, they were outscored 3 to 0. Buffalo allowed Tampa Bay to set the pace and dictated the plays.
They were continually beaten to the puck. Tampa Bay was able to pick up the rebounds easily and make their three goals since the Sabres were giving them too much room on the ice.
As Sabres players left the ice to change their lineups, gaps were created and not closed thus allowing for the Lightning to dominate the first period. They did not do as good a job of staying on their man as they have in previous games. There were too many stationary feet or skates that were hardly moving.
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Going into the second period, it was evident that the Sabres were shaken and that they had finally woken up from whatever funk that had been smothering them in the first period.
They started to win more of the face-offs; however, there were still moments throughout the period where Buffalo were not on top of their man.
It left more scoring opportunities open for Tampa Bay which Linus Ullmark, thankful, stopped.
The Sabres need to be more wary of long passes across the ice. There were too many moments where Tampa Bay was able to get a piece of the puck or take it away entirely.
Jack Eichel, with two Tampa Bay jerseys in his way, was able to shove past up the center and give Buffalo its first and only goal of the entire game. It was his fifth of the season.
In the third period, Tampa Bay was beginning to pull back, feeling comfortable with its two goal lead over the Sabres; although, they continued to out shoot Buffalo 2 to 1. Embarrassingly enough, with less than 30 seconds left, Tampa Bay scored an empty netter and brought the score up to 4 to 1.
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Jack Eichel stepped it up at Thursday night’s game. For such a young man and young addition to the team, he was able to force himself past two Lightning jerseys and fire in the Sabres first only goal during the second period. It was his fifth goal of the season.
Later on in the third period, there was a penalty that went uncalled. Eichel did not hesitate to come to his teammate’s defense and take on not one but two members of the Tampa Bay team in his defense.
The Sabres will have a chance to claim a home victory at 1 p.m. on Saturday, November 7, against the Vancouver Canucks.