Ryan Kesler and his Anaheim Ducks dropped a mighty large butt-kicking on the Buffalo Sabres in front of their owner Terry Pegula and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. Bettman was in Buffalo on Monday to announce that the Sabres will be hosting the 2016 NHL Draft. Sabres fans have become NHL Draft experts and they want to see Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel in Blue & Gold next season.
If the Sabres keep taking abominably disgusting penalties and dying in third periods of games, McDavid or Eichel just may be there for them if they finish dead last overall in the NHL standings this season.
"We knew that team (Buffalo) was going to be hungry," Kesler said. "We nipped it in the bud right off the bat. We played a full 60 minutes. It was a solid offensive effort, but our defensive effort was pretty incredible, as well."
The Sabres were out-everythinged by the dominant Ducks on Columbus Day.
For the third straight game, the Sabres played a robust and competitive first 40 minutes. Then Ted Nolan’s team retreated and played dead in the third period against the Ducks just like they had against the Blackhawks and Blue Jackets.
The Sabres have now been outscored 8-0 in the third period in the first week of the 2014-15 NHL season.
Enroth and Neuvirth have the worst combined goals against average (4.67) in the NHL right now by allowing 14 goals against in 3 games played.
The Sabres have been outshot by their first three opponents by a combined count of 131-57 overall. For every one shot the Sabres are taking they are absorbing 2.5 shots on Enroth and Neuvirth.
Defensively, the Sabres are a mess right now. The Meszaros-Benoit duo is now a combined -10 on the season after going =2 combined in the 5-1 blowout loss to the Ducks. Ted Nolan hinted at defensive changes before the game. He even skated veteran Tyson Strachan as the seventh D in warm-ups. Nolan decided to play Meszaros-Benoit together and the move blew up in Nolan’s face. Face it, Ted. Meszaros and Benoit are a nightmare, especially in third periods. They cough pucks up, fail to hit the forwards on the tape with breakout passes, and are easily thrown aside by hard charging forwards looking to get to the scoring areas. Epic fail Nolan should scratch Meszaros and Benoit on Tuesday night in Raleigh. Why not lose with the young kids in the lineup? Meszaros-Benoit are poor role models for the young kids.Great job by Benoit taking a stupid penalty just 18 seconds into Monday’s home game.Though they failed to score on their first PP attempt, the Ducks worked the puck around the Buffalo zone with relative ease and precision. The Benoit penalty certainly gave the Ducks an early glimpse into the soft spots in Buffalo’s PK coverage. Corey Perry would then go on to score a PPG later in period one.
Penalties once undermined the Sabres. In three games played, the Sabres have committed a total of 17 penalties: 16 minors, 1 major. The total damage has been 37 PIMs. The Sabres are averaging 12.3 PIMs per game. No wonder Ted Nolan is pissed off. His PKers are getting the majority of the ice time and his lines and D pairs get screwed up when that happens.
The ferocious Ducks went 1-for-6 on the PP. How about Ryan Kesler’s penalty shot goal at 12:25? Yeah, that was Benoit who dragged Kesler down from behind to give the former Vancouver Canuck a one-on-one breakaway on Michal Neuvirth.
I’m all for sitting the mediocrity that is Meszaros-Benoit. UFA busts, if you ask me. I’m all for playing Jake McCabe and Nikita Zadorov on Tuesday night in Raleigh. I dare say that the two kids would provide more defensive clout then their two elders have in the first three games of the season.
Ted Nolan was spitting mad after the loss, and rightly so. He questioned which of his players are spectating and which ones are going to lead the group out of the burning wreckage to safe, even ground.
"Sometimes if you have nothing good to say, it's better not to say too much, especially after an outing like this," Sabres coach Ted Nolan said. "That was like an NHL team playing against a peewee team. They dominated us from start to finish. They did all the right things. Everything that we could do wrong we did do wrong."
Nolan’s squad was out-shot 44-12 by the Ducks. The landed 3 shots on Frederik Andersen in the first period, 4 in the second period, and only 5 in the third period.
“You just try to shoot the puck down the ice 15 times, you might hit the net 10 times,… Nolan remarked. “It was bad.…
The Sabres are ranked 28th in the NHL with 1.33 goals scored for in their 3 games played.
Nolan will find a solution for his team’s third period meltdowns.
“I mentioned to the guys yesterday, ‘Don’t confuse my patience with avoidance. Never do that,’… Nolan said. “It’s very frustrating to say the least, but we’ll sort this out and find out who really actually wants to play. If we have to play two lines and four defense, so be it.…
My guess is that Nolan was calling out Meszaros (-6), Benoit (-4), Cody Hodgson (-4, 1 shot), Chris Stewart (-3, 9 shots), Matt Moulson ( 1 assist, 5 shots, even) to name a few. Nic Deslauriers can't seem to get himself in position to get shots on goal. He's big and strong but he's living above the faceoff circles. If he's not crashing the blue, then he's just a five minute a night guy.
The great thing about the drubbing at the hands of the Ducks is that the Sabres had to immediately board a charter flight to Raleigh. The Canes are a hurtin unit right now with three of its leading scorers in the M*A*S*H unit. Jordan Staal (fractured fibula, 3-4 months) eff Skinner (concussion), Eric Staal (upper-body) and Patrick Dwyer (lower-body) will be in the press box for Tuesday’s battle with Buffalo. The Canes recalled AHL forward Zach Boychuk to fortify their lineup.
If Gionta, Gorges, and Moulson can’t light a stick of dynamite under the collective ass of their teammate sto rally them for a win in Raleigh, then the Buffalo problems run deeper than I thought they did.
Tyler Ennis and Zemgus Girgensons have been Buffalo's best forwards this season. A pissed off Ennis put his foot down in the Buffalo room after his team got spanked by Anaheim.
“We need to get mad. We need to get angry,… Ennis said. “We need to play really hard tomorrow and we’re going to. We’re going to head into Carolina and we’re going to play really competitive hockey, stay out of the box but we need one tomorrow for sure.…
Thanks, Sabres.com
** Speaking of Gorges, he drilled Ducks forward Patrick Maroon with a low, crunching body check that knocked first line winger Patrick Maroon out of the game with an ugly lower-body. Maroon could not apply weight to his injured leg as he was helped off the ice by his teammates. Not a great sign for the Ducks.
Gorges wasn’t penalized for his hit, however, the Ducks may be asking the NHL to look at the hit for review and possible supplementary discipline. A busted Buffalo blue line without Gorges for one or more games would spell chaos for Jhonas Enroth and the Sabres. Matt Beleskey too morek Maroon’s place on the Ducks’ top line with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf.