After a perfect first period on Saturday, the Buffalo Sabres decided it was a good time to give up six straight goals and lose spectacularly. On Wednesday night, the Blue and Gold managed to go up 3-0 after the first 40 minutes, only for that familiar inkling of impending doom to invade KeyBank Center once again.
Not only did the Sabres let the Carolina Hurricanes back in last night’s game; they let them back in by failing to log a single shot on goal in the game’s final 20 minutes. Yeah, they ironically scored in that period, and it let Ryan McLeod snag his first career hat trick. But wow, this is getting out of hand.
I really want to call the Sabres a bad hockey team because when you’re the 16th-best team in a 16-team conference, that’s what you are, right? But the other part of me doesn’t believe they’re that bad; they just don’t know how to maintain leads.
Is it seriously that hard to play a full 60 minutes of good hockey every once in a while? It’s not like the Sabres haven’t done that at times this season. Just go back to when they snapped that infamous 13-game losing streak, and it’ll tell you all you need to know. The issue is, they just don’t know how to play a good full game of hockey more than once every blue moon at this rate.
If the Sabres just knew how to play good hockey for the final 20-40 minutes…
I don’t know what the answer is, as that’s for the coaching staff to figure out. But, one way or another, Lindy Ruff and Company need to crack this code. The code that says something like, ‘motivate this hockey team to play a solid game during the back half,’ and that’s it.
Do they need to get more physical as the game goes on? Smarter with the puck? Stop allowing odd-man rushes? The famous ‘combo thereof?’ Hey, I can go on and on here because every time it seems like the Sabres find themselves interested in blowing another hockey game, they keep finding new ways to play bad hockey.
How often do you see teams play as well as they did for two periods and log zero shots on goal in the third frame? Or what about this: They allowed 29 shots on goal through the first 40 minutes and just eight in the final 20, yet they still found a way to give up two goals.
Yeah, it’s great to see the Sabres snag what have been hard-to-come-by wins this season, just as it is every year. But last night, despite McLeod’s hat trick, I couldn’t help but think, ‘How can this team keep finding new ways to play bad hockey?’ I don’t know, so hopefully, Lindy Ruff has the answer.