AIDAN POLLARD
Special to the Leader
The Buffalo Sabres have played three games in the past week. On Tuesday they won against the Capitals 3-1, on Friday they lost to the Panthers 4-1 and on Saturday they lost in overtime to the Canadiens in a 2-1 game.
For the entire season, the Sabres have been fighting to stay out of the bottom spot in the NHL Atlantic division. They started the season with a five-game losing streak that was broken by a game against the Anaheim Ducks, and they’ve been having shaky performances ever since that first win. They’ve managed to stay ahead of the Florida Panthers so far this season but the bottom spot is creeping ever closer, especially after the loss to the Panthers on Friday.
The Sabres struck first with a power-play goal late in the first period. After that first period though, it was an onslaught of offense from Florida when they scored one goal in the second period, and then three more in the third. The Panthers scored one goal against the Sabres’ Robin Lehner in the third period, followed by two insurance empty-net goals with less than two minutes to go to put the nail in the coffin.
After Buffalo’s loss to the Panthers this week,
the two teams were tied at 12 points, and the Sabres only pulled ahead by taking the Montreal
Canadiens to overtime for a guaranteed point on Saturday. The Sabres had an early game lead with a goal scored with less than 10 seconds left in the first period. The Sabres were able to hold off the Canadiens with strong defensive play throughout the second period, but less than a minute into the third period, Montreal scored a goal that carried the game into overtime, where the Canadiens scored about halfway through the five extra minutes.
The Sabres have been having a good deal of trouble with overtime play this season, winning only one overtime game out of four so far. Since the NHL has changed the rules of overtime play to three-on-three hockey, there’s been a much stronger focus on offense when a game goes into the extra five minutes. Currently, the Sabres offense isn’t really strong enough to support that kind of play, and their goaltending certainly isn’t strong enough to defend against it.
Buffalo is currently in a fight with Florida to stay out of the bottom of their division and are only ahead of the Panthers and Coyotes out of the whole NHL. The Sabres are sitting with 13 points on 17 games, and the Panthers have 12 points with 16 games. The Panthers have two games coming up this week and the Sabres have three, so the Sabres could really use this week to try and dig themselves out of this fight for the bottom spot and into the middle of the division, where the Bruins, Canadiens and Red Wings are each within five point of the Sabres.
This week, the Sabres will face off against the Penguins on Tuesday, the Red Wings on Friday and the Hurricanes on Saturday.