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The Buffalo Sabres have lost their last three games by the same score of 2-1.
Losing in OT normally doesn't piss me off. It's a 50/50 coin flip, right?
You get a poiint for showing up. You lose the second point for dumb reasons.
But, when the referee butchers an obvious minor penalty call on Evander Kane just 29 seconds into overtime and then awards a penalty shot to a players who didn't deserve one, my blood boils.
In the 3-on-3 overtime session, Kane used his blazing speed to back check and catch Devils defenseman Andy Greene while on a breakaway. Kane fouled Greene, but did not knock him down. Kane took the proper angle and caught his man. The proper call on the play would have been a two minute minor for obstruction.
Inexplicably, the ref awarded Greene a penalty shot which he scored on to give the Devils their thrid straight win.
The glass half full is that the Sabres now have 14 points in 14 games without the services of Jack Eichel.
Matt Moulson gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead midway thriugh the first period.
The Sabres should know by now that one goal leads are not safe in the NHL.
Moulson has 5 PPGs on the season. He has yet to score 5v5.
Johann Auvitu scored the game tying goal in the third period.
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Ryan O'Reilly left the game 3:49 into the third period. After teh game, Dan Bylsma said trhat ROR felt good enough to play against the Devils after being forced to sit out Buffalo's 2-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday. Bylsma would not elaborate on the injury only to say that ROR will be re-evaluated. It's not likely taht O'Reilly will play in Newark on Saturday night.
To my eye, it looks like O'Reilly is experiencing a flair up of his recent back ailment that sidelined him in training camp. O'Reilly played for Team Canada at teh World Cup of Hockey. He didn't report to Sabres training camp until two days after Canada won teh World Cup gold medal.
O'Reilly suffered back spasms in the days leading up to the season opener versus Montreal.
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Tyler Ennis is missing his second game of the season tonight. The Buffalo water bug underwent surgery on Thursday on a reported groin ailment. The initial timetable for Ennis to recover was two to three weeks, which is customary healing time for such a groin procedure.
However, Ennis may be lost for a longer period of time than first expected.
According to John Vogl of the Buffalo News, Ennis could now miss up to two months due to a double sports hernia.
In retrospect, it was clear that Ennis had been hampered by the injury for the first month of the season. He has just one goal and one assist in 12 games.
Perhaps Ennis suffered his injury trying to regain his strength and cardio as a result of the two serious injuroies that he suffered from last season.
Ennis was forced to miss 59 games in 2015-16 (3 goals , 8 assists) with two serious concussions. His ability to workout and stay in shape was seriously hampered due to the fatigue he felt from his concussion symptoms. Ennis spent his spring and summer months working out at home in Edmonton. He reported to training camp with considerably more muscle definition and tone on his diminuitive frame. You could tell that he had invested the time and sweat equity in the gym to achieve his summer fitness goals.
In 380 career games with teh Sabres, Ennis has scored 93 goals and 132 assists.
Ennis has been averaging 13:43 TOI per game.
Losing Ennis for 2-3 months will certainly impact the top six forward group of the Sabres.
The return of Evander Kane on Wednesday night is certainly cushioning the blow of losing Ennis' speed and play making abilities.
With Ennis on the shelf on Friday night, Bylsma rolled these lines against New Jersey:
Kane-ROR-Okposo Foligno-Larsson-Gionta Moulson-Girgensons-Reinhart Carrier-Grant-Baptiste
The next man up will have to absorb the minutes that Bylsma was giving to Ennis.
Bylsma can stand pat or he can give Nick Baptiste a look at top nine minutes to spark the offense. Baptiste has two goals this season in eight games during his two call up stints. He's been skating on the fourth line with Derek Grant and Will Carrier.
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The Sabres have already lost 66 man games due to injuries this season.
Cody McCormick (blood clots, October 13, injured reserve) – 13 games Jack Eichel (high-ankle sprain, October 13; injured reserve) – 13 games Nicolas Deslauriers (knee, October 30; injured reserve) – 6 games Hudson Fasching (lower body, October 31)- 7 games Zach Bogosian (MCL sprain, November 3) – 4 games Tyler Ennis (groin, November 9) – 2 games Ryan O’Reilly (middle body, November 9) – 1 game Dmitry Kulikov (undisclosed, Novemebr 10)- 1 game Kyle Okposo (knee, October 13)- 1 game