The Buffalo Sabres had six power play opportunities against the Ottawa Senators and converted just once.
Buffalo Sabres alternate captain Kyle Okposo scored the team’s first and only goal against the Senators on an epic deke. It turned out to be the team’s only goal of the evening. A goal that occurred on one of their six power play opportunities.
Even more alarming, the Sabres lack of aggression on the power play showed, as the team combined for just 24 shots on goal as opposed to the Senators 28. While the Sabres came to life against the Montreal Canadiens and New York Islanders with 11 goals in two outings, they fell back to Earth in a lazy showing against the Senators.
Buffalo Sabres once again display lack of puck aggression
Showing consistent puck aggression and scoring has been a problem all season for the Sabres. When they lead you to believe the tide is turning, they fall flat on their faces and turn in a performance akin to what happened against Ottawa.
Okay, all teams have bad games, even the best. But the Sabres, 17th in the league in power play percentage at 19.9% and 19th in power play goals with 27, had golden opportunities with six of them. The Senators, who had just two power plays, were giving the Sabres the game. At the KeyBank Center, mind you.
It’s one thing to have a bad game offensively. It’s another thing to have a bad game when an opponent tries to give you the game.
Of the Sabres 24 shots on goal, 20 occurred during the first 40 minutes. It was like watching the Columbus game all over again, where the team just gave up at some point in the third. Once again, head coach Don Granato couldn’t figure out how to keep the team motivated for 60 minutes. Here’s what he had to say:
"“I think we had not enough work ethic, not enough compete in [the power plays] and it…bled into the five-on-five game at that point.”"
While Granato’s a great coach, he’s still, as he stated following the Columbus game, citing lack of desire from the team. Following the loss to Columbus, I stated he was pointing fingers at his players. This time, if ‘we’ also includes him, at least he realizes he too must take ownership for the team’s lapses.
Now the question remains: How is he (and the team) going to fix it? He’d best think of something fast. The high-scoring Colorado Avalanche are up next.