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Tough Sledding in Front of a Tough Crowd

October 22, 2021, 9:27 PM ET [314 Comments]
Hank Balling
Buffalo Sabres Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The first period of Friday night’s game against the Boston Bruins certainly wasn’t the national debut that the Sabres organization would have liked to display.

The ESPN telecast was dominated by talk of the sparse crowd populated with plenty of Bruins jerseys during the early going. There looked to be right around 7,000-8,000 fans which was the standard figure through the first three games in Western New York and many of the patrons were wearing brown and yellow rather than blue and gold. The poor fan showing was made all the more embarrassing by the nature of the game being prominently displayed on Hulu’s opening screen when opening the app. Prospective viewers didn’t even need to search for the game; it was available with a single click as the highlighted program of the night.

Chronic mismanagement and a lack of trust in Sabres ownership has severely eroded the passion of the fan base in a once-proud hockey town. It’s sad to see. It used to be that a Sabres home crowd acted as the same kind of catalyst for their team that the Bills enjoy at Highmark Stadium, but a decade of brutal play, escalating prices and a never-ending saga involving former captain Jack Eichel has led to an attendance figure that could best be called depressing.

Speaking of Jack Eichel, the ESPN crew was quick to eviscerate the Sabres for not figuring out a way to find resolution with their injured superstar. Whether fair or not, the Sabres are going to deal with that kind of talk on the national broadcasts all season as Eichel’s status is one of the biggest storylines in the NHL and will be until the final move is made to send Eichel out of town.

The Sabres played a very solid first period, even if the scoreboard showed a 2-0 deficit after 20 minutes. Don Granato’s squad outshot the Bruins 15-7 in the opening frame but weren’t able to find the back of the net. David Pastrnak opened the scoring in the first by wiring a top-shelf wrister from the high slot that beat Craig Anderson. Kyle Okposo was a little slow to grab his man coming into prime scoring position. Even still, the Sabres carried play for a good portion of the period. The Pastrnak goal shows that the Sabres can have all the will in the world, but without much high-end talent on the team, it’s hard to win games. The second bruins goal was much of the same as the Bruins were dominated in their own zone before transitioning the other way and converting a pretty tic-tac-toe play.

The Sabres simply don’t have the kind of talent that can turn it on at the drop of a hat (or the drop of the puck).

Dylan Cozens had a glorious opportunity on the powerplay late in the first as he slid a puck five-hole on Linus Ullmark. Cozens' shot went off the backside of Ullmark’s leg and propelled back to the crease. The Sabres forward has been unbelievably snakebitten through the preseason and now the early going of the regular season as well. The Sabres need that luck to turn around soon. Cozens buzzed all over the ice throughout the duration of the game and will in all likelihood break through in short order.

The Sabres perfect penalty kill saw its unbeaten streak end in the second period following a penalty to Rasmus Dahlin. Dahlin took what you might call a “good penalty” as he prevented a sure goal from Pastrnak whose chance was generated by a bad giveway at the blue line from Vinnie Hinostroza. The ensuing powerplay goal all but ended the Sabres night at that point. From there, it was just a matter of saving some face and trying to keep it respectable.

The battle in net between Anderson and Ullmark was dominated by Ullmark through the first 40 who faced plenty of shots. Anderson had let in 3 goals on 11 shots midway through the second, though it would be difficult to pin those goals on the veteran netminder. They were simply grade-A chances finished by a team with superior goalscorers on the Bruins’ side. There are going to be nights like this where the Sabres are simply outclassed by their opponent.

Random second period note here: commentary disappeared from the stream for a solid 2-3 minute stretch during the second. They didn’t say if that was a technical issue or if it was just a stylistic decision. It made me realize that I would gladly watch a game with only ambient rink sounds. Can that be an option moving forward?

Anyway, the second period ended with the Sabres in a seemingly insurmountable 3-0 hole. The home team had one of the worst powerplays you would have the misfortune of watching as the Sabres managed almost nothing in the final two minutes of the period, and to add injury to insult, Rasmus Dahlin got dumped in the corner by Brad Marchand and was slow getting off the ice. Thankfully Dahlin returned in the third.

The Sabres continued pressing and generating shots in the third with the same kind of ferocious intensity as in the first two periods. It finally paid off as Victor Olofsson found himself essentially 1-on-1 with Linus Ullmark. Olofsson buried his scoring opportunity by putting the puck low glove side behind his countryman and former teammate to make the score 3-1. After that, the Sabres applied some more pressure before Taylor Hall slapped home an emphatic empty net goal to end the comeback. Hall looked a bit salty after being booed all night.

Overall, it wasn't a terrible performance by the Sabres. This team isn't hilariously woeful; they’re just not tremendously skilled either. It’s like if you created a videogame team where most everyone on the team is a 80 overall. No one is really, really bad, but neither are there many players who are actually, truly gifted. Throw this loss in the fire and move on. The Sabres were simply outgunned by a veteran-led, proven and skilled Boston Bruins team.

That’s going to happen this season.

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