The Buffalo Sabres fell 4-3 in overtime to the New Jersey Devils last night. In a game that Buffalo looked like they should have won in regulation, then it looked like they should lose in regulation; the Sabres are just lucky they came away with any points at all.
Even before puck drop, there was drama as Jack Eichel was a late scratch from the lineup due to a lower-body injury. According to Sabres head coach Ralph Krueger, Eichel experienced discomfort in pre-game warmups and could not go for the game. Krueger then made the puzzling decision to have Tage Thompson fill the hole in the lineup left by Eichel instead of Jeff Skinner.
Without Eichel, Riley Sheahan was the first-line center for the Sabres. And he capitalized on his opportunity as he scored a goal on a nice backhand shot in the first period. Eichel is currently listed as day-to-day.
Linus Ullmark started the game and picked up where he left off on Tuesday night. He looked incredible in the first period, stopping all 15 shots that he faced. But he appeared to injure himself while making an unbelievable save on a one-time opportunity from the Devils midway through the first period. He stayed in the game for the remainder of the first period but did not come out for the second period as Carter Hutton took his place in net.
wow, what a sequence of saves from Ullmark #LetsGoBuffalo #NJDevils pic.twitter.com/ICy740FVPX
— Buffalo Hockey Moments (@SabresPlays) February 26, 2021
We quickly learned why Linus Ullmark was starting his fifth game over eight days. Not only has Ullmark been on fire lately, but Carter Hutton also is not a viable goalie option in the NHL. He allowed four goals on 25 shots in the two periods he played in, compared to no goals on 15 shots that Ullmark saw in the first period.
Buffalo lost the lead in just over two minutes in the third period when the Devils exposed Hutton and netted two goals. The Sabres keep their power play cooking as they went two for four, including the game-tying goal from Sam Reinhart at the 15:30 mark in the third.
Sadly for Buffalo, Carter Hutton was not up to the task in overtime as he got beat on a shot from Pavel Zacha just over a minute into the overtime period.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Linus is a better option in goal than Hutton is. What would come as a surprise is if the Sabres do not make a move to add a veteran goalie to replace him. Especially now with Ullmark’s injury, which hopefully is nothing major, but the Sabres don’t have an excuse to keep Hutton at this point. Ullmark will hopefully only miss a couple of games. It has been announced that he is not expected to be available for the Sabres weekend series against the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Sabres’ next game is on Saturday afternoon in Buffalo against Philadelphia. If Jack Eichel is unable to go, Ralph Krueger needs to put his biased aside, even if he says he doesn’t have one (which I don’t believe at all) and put Jeff Skinner in the lineup.
It is obvious that Tage Thompson is not a better option than Skinner. Skinner isn’t the only one who is struggling to put up numbers this season. If Krueger used this same logic with all the Buffalo players, we would have seen Jack Eichel and Taylor hall be a healthy scratch by now, which obviously would never happen.