Buffalo Sabres vs St. Louis Blues: Post Game Thoughts
By Adam DeRose
The Buffalo Sabres opened the first game of a back-and-back that has huge playoff implications with a huge win. Adam breaks down the action.
Saturday afternoon the Buffalo Sabres hosted the St. Louis Blues. The Blues are fresh off of firing their head coach, Ken “Captain Kangaroo” Hitchcock, while the Sabres are fresh off of a 2 gaming winning streak! The Sabres looked to extend their winning streak to 3 games, a rarity to be sure.
During the pregame show, it was announced that Buffalo Sabre Sam Reinhart was injured and Coach Dan called up Nick Baptiste from the Rochester Americans (who played the night before against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers). When I heard Baptiste would be playing on the Eichel and Kane line, I thought to myself, “Oh well, whatever, Coach Dan is constantly changing up lines. No one ever knows who they are playing with. I can’t change it. Maybe this combo will work out?” Low and behold, the line of Eichel, Kane, and Baptiste delivered! Being down 1-0, Eichel fed Baptiste the puck, who buried it past Blues’ goaltender Jake Allen to tie the game.
During the game, Buffalo Sabres color commentator Rob Ray stated how Blues goalie Jake Allen has had the Sabres number for the past 4 games, being 4-0 against the Blue & Gold. Those numbers run deeper than the Sabres. I remember watching the Rochester Amerks during the 2014 AHL Calder Cup playoffs. Allen was the starting goaltender for the Chicago Wolfpack. Rochester lost in the 1st Round 2-3 in a 5 game series to Allen and he looked good back then.
Has Hell frozen over? Hell no! It melted away! That must be the reason why the Sabres had such a great 2nd Period! The Buffalo Sabres escaped the 2nd Period without falling asleep and being up by a goal by red-hot Evander Kane!
Speaking about Evander, he was a beast on the ice. Besides scoring a goal, he was all over the rink. During the 3rd Period, he was mixing it up with St. Louis’ Ryan Reaves. The two were ready to drop the gloves and tango, but those fartknocker linesmen broke up the dance…losers…the linesmen I mean. Maybe they wanted room for the Holy Ghost?
The shorthanded goal late in the 3rd Period was a low blow to Buffalo. Sabres goalie Robin Lehner has been playing good of late, but I feel as if he got beat on a softy. Honestly, all throughout the game, I felt as if the Sabres played great in front of their net-minder. Maybe the team actually listened to Lehner’s comments a few games ago on how disgusting his team was “playing.”
Since we are talking about Lehner, I think—along with many other Sabre fans—that the Tripping Penalty against Lehner in the dying minutes of the game was total poop! It’s just another example of the NHL trying to be the WWE and making the game fun for casual spectators. Thankfully Buffalo killed off the penalty and won the game!
With Buffalo’s 3-2 win, it put them 2 points out of the last Wild Card spot. Hopefully the Sabres can extend their play and motivation into tomorrow because they have a tough game against the Chicago Blackhawks. It would be great if the Sabres carried a 4 game-winning streak into the NHL Bye Week!