Last night, you can pin a significant portion of last night’s overtime loss on Buffalo Sabres forward Jeff Skinner, given his match penalty.
The NHL Department of Player Safety will be exchanging a few words with Jeff Skinner, following his inexcusable actions in last night’s loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. While Skinner rightfully confronted Penguins forward Jake Guentzel in last night’s game, the cross check to the face is something both Skinner and the Buffalo Sabres need to avoid from happening again.
His actions put the Penguins on the power play, and they scored just 96 seconds in overtime to secure the win over the Sabres. And while it is always better to walk away with a point as opposed to no points, this loss should hurt the Sabres more than almost any other this season, as it was a game that resembled a classic heavyweight fight against one of the league’s best teams.
Buffalo Sabres forward Jeff Skinner needs to control his emotions
Sure, Guentzel’s slash on Anderson was uncalled for, but at the end of the day, his goal wasn’t to injure goaltender Craig Anderson, which he didn’t. Instead, Guentzel wanted to get a rise out of someone, and Skinner ultimately took the bait.
Earlier in the contest, Skinner put one into the net with helpers from Tage Thompson and Casey Mittelstadt. It helped give the Sabres a 2-1 lead in a game where many analysts like Lance Lysowski of Buffalo News felt the Sabres outplayed the league’s oldest team.
Then a massive mental error from one of the Blue and Gold’s best players cost them, and the rest is for the recent history books. While I applaud Skinner for going after Guentzel and sticking up for Anderson, he went way too far with the unnecessary cross check.
Hopefully, this doesn’t result in a severe punishment from the league, and that we will see a more composed Jeff Skinner the next time something like this happens. As the season wears on and the margin of error tightens, actions such as these simply can’t happen.
(Statistics provided by NHL.com)
Article Source: Observations: Jeff Skinner’s match penalty costs Sabres in OT loss to Penguins by Lance Lysowski
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