On Thursday, Logan Couture scored his third NHL hat trick, and Evander Kane had two assists in his first game against his former team to fuel the San Jose Sharks to a 5-1 shellacking of the Buffalo Sabres.
Joonas Donskoi and Joe Pavelski also scored for teh Sharsk.
Martin Jones made 24 saves for the Sharks (3-3-1).
Jake McCabe scored for the Sabres (3-4-0).
Carter Hutton made 34 saves in the loss.
Losses to Vegas and San Jose have dropped Buffalo to a 3-4 record on the season.
Housley and Jason Botterill want to stay right the ship now. back to back wins in LA on Saturday and Anaheim on Sunday would jack the Sabres back to a respectable 5-4 record.
The Sharks entered the Sabres game with a 2-for-21 power play record. They found their panacea for all that ails them in the ho-hum Sabres penalty killing units.
Pete DeBoer's power play went 3-for-7 with the man advantage. Credit DeBoer for taking Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson away from one another and played the two Norris Trophy winners on seperate PP units.
On the other side of the coin, Phil Housley's PP went 0-for-5 on the night. The Sabres are now
4 for 29 (24th, 13.8%) on the power play in the first seven games of the season.
On Tuesday night in Las Vegas, the Sabres were bounced 4-1 by the Golden Knights. The Sabres surrendered a power play goal and a shorthanded goal to the Knights.
Sabres lines from the San Jose loss:
Sheary-Eichel-Reinhart
Skinner-Mittelstadt-Okposo
Elie-Sobotka-Thompson
Girgensons-Rodrigues-Pominville
Scandella-Ristolainen
McCabe-Dahlin
Beaulieu-Bogosian
After Friday’s practice, Housley explained why he is mixing up his forward lines, D pairs and PP units.
"We talked about making decisions on a day-to-day, game-by-game”, Housley said.
“Obviously, we didn't get the results, so we've got to make some decisions and try to put some new lines together today to see the chemistry. I thought we had a really good practice today."
The Sabres play in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon. On Friday, Housley took a hammer to his forward lines and D pairs.
Per the Sabres, Housley made the following changes:
* Conor Sheary and Samson Reinhart were demoted from right wing on L1 to L3.
* Jeff Skinner and Jason Pominville were promoted to Eichel's wings.
* Evan Rodrigues was bumped up to L2.
* Johan Larsson was the fourth line center.
* Tage Thompson was the extra skater
Skinner-Eichel-
Pominville
Rodrigues-Mittelstadt-Okposo
Sheary-Sobotka-
Reinhart
Girgensons-
Larsson-Berglund
*
Thompson
McCabe-Ristolainen
Scandella-Nelson
Dahlin-?
To add intrigue, forward Remi Elie skates alongside Rasmus Dahlin as a defenseman.
Why?
Nathan Beaulieu blocked a slap shot with his forearm or wrist in the third period in the loss to San Jose. Beaulieu didn't finish the game. Defenseman Zach Bogosian was given the day off from practice on Friday. My guess is Bogosian's hand is sore after he snot bubbled Sharks forward Joakim Ryan at the end of the 5-1 loss in San Jose. Bogosian scored a unanimous knockout.
So, Phil. What are you going to do about your stagnant power play units?
Say hello to new units.
Eichel is the sole survivor on the first unit. Rasmus Ristolainen, Conor Sheary, Samson Reinhart and Kyle Okposo have been sent to the second power play unit.
PP1:
Eichel,
Dahlin, Pominville, Skinner, Mittelstadt
PP2:
Ristolainen, Okposo, Reinhart, Sheary, Rodrigues
I love Housley's decision making process to cluster his skill players on the first unit.
Eichel-Ristolainen-Okposo-Reinhart-Sheary fell in love with trying to make the cute play with too many passes and not enough shots at the enemy net. Keep it simple. Houlsley preaches getting a clean entry, setting up, working the puck aroud and finding the open man in a one-timer shooting postion.
Dahlin is a game breaker and he has earned his stripes and right to play with Eichel. Dahlin brings a three game point streak into the Kings game (1G,2A).
For as bad as the Sabres PP has bene the past four games, the Kings are even worse with a 2-for-25 power play efficiency rate. That's 29th overall at 8% success rate.
The Kings' penalty kill has allowed 6 PPG against (26, 70%).
The Sabres' penalty kill has allowed 7 PPG against (28th, 69.6%).
The Kings are 2-4-1 and are in desperate need for answers to serious questions about their offense, defense and specal teams. The NY Islander clobbered the Kings 7-2 in LA on Thursday night.
The Sabres haven't beaten the Kings on their ice since a 5-1 win fifteen years ago on October 23, 2003. That is when the Sabres ended a six-game winless skid (0-5-1) in road games against the LA Kings that had dated back to March 13, 1996 (6-2 Sabres win).
The Sabres are 4-6-0 in their last 10 games against the Kings. The Sabres 2-7-1 on the road.
This is the 124th game all-time between Buffalo and Los Angeles. Buffalo owns a 59-45-19 series record.
The Sabres are 24-28-10 on the road against the Kings all-time.
**
Linus Ullmark stopped 20 of 21 shots (.952 SV%) in his only previous meeting with Los Angeles on December 12, 2015 in Buffalo to earn the fifth win of his NHL career.
Jack Eichel has scored 3 gaols and 2 assists in five career games against the Kings.
Patrik Berglund has recorded a point in each of his last three games against the Kings (1G,2A).
Kyle Okposo has notched five assists in his last four games against the Kings.
Jason Pominville has accumulated a goala dn 5 assists in his last five games against the Kings.
**
Kings line trios from Friday practice:
Iafallo-Kopitar-Toffoli
Kovalchuk-Carter-Rempal
Wagner-Kempe-Lewis
Clifford-Thompson-Amadio
**
If Housley's new lines and PP units don't work to his liking, he may want to reach down to AHL Rochester for sniper Victor Olofsson and elite puck mover Lawence Pilut.
Join the Discussion:
»