The Buffalo Sabres have had a bad habit of allowing themselves to suffer through lapses of pedestrian play during games, and it has cost them.
Despite their poor 1-3-0 record last week, the Buffalo Sabres had times when they played solid hockey. But in each of their previous three games, they also had one common denominator: Lapses in pedestrian play. It resulted in them allowing quick goals in each contest, and also forced them to try and come back from multiple-goal deficits.
Here is a brief rundown from each contest, and how the Blue and Gold fell behind:
- In their 6-4 loss to the St. Louis Blues, the Sabres allowed two goals within five minutes and two seconds, and a third at the 10:59 mark. While they battled back to tie the game, it was short-lived as the Blues answered with two more goals in 24 seconds, before they tacked on one more in the third period.
- When the Sabres lost to Carolina, they allowed two goals in 70 seconds in the first period. In the second frame, they allowed three more, with the latter two coming within four minutes of one another.
- The Sabres allowed just two goals vs. the Nashville Predators, but they occurred within 75 seconds of one another midway through the first frame.
Buffalo Sabres cannot afford any lapses against Week 9 opponents
This week, the Blue and Gold have the Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins, and Montreal Canadiens on their slate, and two of those three teams are currently playing great hockey. The Red Wings and Bruins would quickly take advantage of another lapse in concentration and quickly score two or three times within minutes to once again force the Buffalo Sabres to climb out of another hole.
The upside is that the Blue and Gold played some sound defense this past Sunday vs. the Predators, so if that continues tonight and in subsequent games this week, they may find themselves in more manageable situations. We will see if they can shake off those streaky bouts of pedestrian play tonight when they host the Red Wings.
(Information provided by NHL.com)