Youth no longer an excuse for Buffalo Sabres sloppy play
By Sion Fawkes
Having lost five of their last six contests, the Buffalo Sabres are at their lowest point since their eight-game losing streak in November.
In a span of 34 hours, the Buffalo Sabres have gone from bad to worse offensively. In yesterday’s loss against the Florida Panthers, they looked slow and out of sync. In tonight’s collapse against the Chicago Blackhawks, the Sabres handled the puck worse than a low-end ECHL team, and that’s being generous. Somehow, they found twine three times, but don’t ask me how they pulled that one off.
Whether your name was Alex Tuch or Tage Thompson, even the Blue and Gold’s best had puck-handling issues tonight. It was as though the Sabres were overthinking things from the get-go, and at the end of the night, it cost them a valuable point. Valuable because the Sabres could have climbed within one point of the Panthers had they held on.
In the final minute of the game, the Blackhawks found a way to score. And it took just over two minutes of overtime (and more bad puck handling from the Sabres), for Chicago to exert revenge on a team that has given them nothing but headaches since Tage Thompson’s bizarre game-winning goal last season in that very arena.
Buffalo Sabres offense hasn’t just stalled…it’s tanked
The Sabres are the NHL’s youngest team. But given the way we’ve seen them score time and again this season, youth isn’t an excuse anymore. We know they can score, so age and lack of experience is no longer a valid talking point.
Instead, the Blue and Gold need to, sooner or later, stop thinking so much when the puck is in their possession. This has been the primary common denominator since their shutout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, and right now, it’s hard to decipher exactly why this group has fallen flat on their faces.
Perhaps it’s because opponents have started to catch on to their style of play that served them so well during the first half of the season? Or maybe it’s something else? A combo, perhaps? Whatever the issue, they need to figure it out and put it to rest.
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Tonight was a perfect opportunity to do that, but at the end of the night, they blew it. The New York Islanders are up next on Ryan Miller Night. And I can guarantee you this: The Buffalo Sabres will be feeling a lot of pressure. That said, it’s going to be tough to put any faith into this group.
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