Buffalo Sabres Bad Strategy: Pulling the goaltender with six to go

Missing Alex Tuch and Rasmus Dahlin, the Buffalo Sabres needed to work some magic against Boston. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. 

If you missed the Buffalo Sabres loss to the Boston Bruins, you missed very little, other than Boston outpacing the Blue and Gold for a vast majority of the contest. The Bruins scored two goals in a 90-second span in the second frame, and tacked on a third midway through the third period, practically ending things early. Or so we all thought.

Boston grew stronger as the game progressed, and the Sabres needed to make something happen if they wanted any chance at mounting a comeback, slim as it may have been against the league’s best team on many fronts. And that’s when head coach Don Granato decided to pull goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who single handedly kept a blowout at bay, out of the net.

Predictably, the Bruins, who’ve taken advantage of the Sabres sloppy play in the offensive zone all night long, scored rather quickly, icing the game at 4-0. Casey Mittelstadt’s goal with four and half minutes to go prevented the shutout, and less than a minute later, Buffalo found themselves back on the power play. So maybe, just maybe, there was a tiny ray of hope here…

Buffalo Sabres suffer blowout loss with poor strategy late in the third

You already have a man advantage, and your team already allowed an empty-netter with five and a half to go. Conventional wisdom states you keep your goaltender, who somehow kept your team at least somewhat in the game all night, in the net. But no, Granato thought it was a good idea to once again pull Luukkonen, and you can probably predict what happened next.

At 5-1, I turned the game off and started writing this piece. And hey, I’m all for playing to win game in and game out. I’m also all for trying something different.

But when your goaltender pulled off Jedi-like saves for most of the game to at least keep the contest manageable and you pull him with six minutes to go when your team couldn’t control the puck for 54 minutes, I don’t know what to say. Honestly, I’m at a loss for words.

I’m a big fan of Don Granato, but that doesn’t make him immune to my criticism. He handled the last six minutes of the game in the worst way possible, and it turned an otherwise manageable game into a blowout loss. Clearly, they figured nothing out following their debilitating loss to Columbus two nights ago. Maybe things will change this weekend vs. Tampa….maybe….

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