The Buffalo Sabres may have lost yet another contest on Saturday, but they stood out in one impressive statistics that is worth mentioning.
Over the Buffalo Sabres five-gave losing streak that saw them drop four games to playoff-caliber teams, they did post an impressive stat line against the Boston Bruins. Throughout most of the streak, the Sabres were often relegated to playing catchup all night after allowing early goals.
Against Boston, that did not happen. In the unlikeliest of moments, center Tage Thompson stole the puck and weaved through three Bruins en route to scoring one of the best shorthanded goals we have seen in recent memory.
The goal gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead, and they held onto that lead until the 18:51 mark of the second period. Impressive to say the least.
The Buffalo Sabres held a lead for once during this five-game stretch
Clearly, the young Sabres team filled with a plethora of issues did not hold it long enough, as the Bruins steamrolled back and ended up winning the game, 3-1. But in the previous four games combined, they held the lead for under five minutes. Do the math, and that’s an average of holding a lead for 1:15 per game.
You may say, Why is this relevant? The Sabres didn’t hold onto the lead for the entire game! Listen, with a team like the Sabres, a young group facing some of the league’s most experienced squads, mistakes are going to be made and leads are going to be blown. It comes with the territory of being a young hockey team.
So the fact that they managed to hold a lead for 33 and a half minutes against the Eastern Conference’s best team is nothing short of impressive. Ideally, we would have seen them increase and maintain that lead, but this was something a downtrodden team like the Sabres currently are, needed.
Now, it’s back to the drawing board, where head coach Don Granato and company will look to figure out how to build and maintain leads for a 60-minute duration.
Article Source: Observations: Sabres drop fifth straight, show they’re ‘still learning’ in loss to Bruins by Lance Lysowski
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