The final 30 minutes of this game have been devoid of skill and emotion for the Sabres. They are like zombies on ice. No passion. No jam. No attention to detail. No urgency. No effort.
***
3-0 Islanders
John Tavares performed a zone-time clinic as he took a Sekera turnover and skated the puck around in Buffalo end for what seemed like two straight minutes. Along the way, he cycled the puck by himself behind Miller while forearming Sekera to the ice. JT skated out front untouched and beat Miller clean. Virtuoso performance
* Scouts in the house to watch tonight's game from: Dallas, Phoenix, Vancouver, among others....
* Sabres are 0-4 on PP. They are now 2 for their last 44 PP attempts in their last 11 games.
*
Rolston called his timeout during a powerplay with 3:54 remaining in P2. The pause helped to breathe life into the Islanders as they scored twice in the final 3;54.
1-0 Isles:
Matt Moulson dragged the puck down his right wing, with time to scan the ice. With the flow headed down the slot to Miller's doorstep, Moulson threw a dart at Mark Streit's stick across the slot, to the soft area adjacent to the faceoff circle. Streit ponded home the pass, backdoor.
2-0 Isles:
Christian ehrhoff butchered a pass across the middle. Grabner intercepted it Ed Redd style, then took it to the house.
After twenty minutes, its not clear to me what type game the Sabres are attempting to play tonight. Looks like they are trying to feel out Tavares and the Islanders. Sabres better figure it out quick as the Islanders are the NHL top scoring team in second periods.
* Sabres played a rather (yawn) inspired first period. The perfect road period. Very safe, very vanilla.
* They were below average on the two PP attempts that they earned.Too much indecision with the puck. Ehrhoff and Pominville holding puck up top and not making quicker decisions goofed up the net front screens that Vanek set.
* Sabres outshot 13-7
* Sabres D allowing islanders way too much time in the Buffalo zone. Its a common theme these past few weeks.
* Grigorenko played 4 shifts for 3:24 TOI. No PP time, yet.
* Foligno skated 4 shifts for 2:53 TOI; Kaleta skated 4 shifts for 2:46 TOI.