Tonight the Sabres got off to a very slow first period start again, but managed to have a decent come back from a 4-0 deficit to make it a game, ultimately losing 5-3 at home to the Red Wings.
It didn’t take long for Detroit to open up the scoring, with Dylan Larkin ripping a beautiful shot just 3:40 into the game to make it a 1-0 game. Robby Fabbri made it 2-0 with 11:35 left in the first, another 2-0 deficit quick for the Sabres. Awful defense for the Sabres chasing sticks with tic tac toe passing for the Red Wings that made the Buffalo defense look like they were sandbagging in a beer league. And Comrie might as well not even be in net. Even in the 2-0 hole and with how bad the defense looked, the offense, despite being held off the scoreboard, got some nice scoring chances. No doubt though, this is a bad team.
Mo Seider made it a 3-0 game 5:43 into the second period with a rocket from up top while the Sabres defense failed to clear the puck and then didn’t get in the shooting lane. Detroit made it a 4-0 game with Rasmussen flying up the ice, untouched right up the middle and beating Comrie five hole. What a pathetic goal for the defense to give up. Looked like a fucking breakaway without even being a breakaway. The Sabres finally broke the shutout with 1:03 left in the second period, with Rasmus Dahlin ripping a long range shot from the point on the power play to put Buffalo on the board, very fast into the power play after one of the very few good scoring chances we had.
The Sabres came out hot in the third period, getting plenty of scoring chances and with some beautiful passing between Skinner and Peterka, Casey Mittelstadt made in an interesting game 8:20 into the third. A few minutes later, with 8:23 left in regulation, on the power play, a fantastic backhand goal by Jeff Skinner put us back within one with a 4-3 game. The Sabres made a really solid effort a 6 on 4 power play with Comrie on the bench to try to tie it up and come all the way back, with some really good chances to score, but couldn’t get the puck past Alex Lyon. Dylan Larkin capped off the game with an empty net goal with 46 seconds left to end it.
FINAL: Sabres 3, Red Wings 5
Really solid effort for the Sabres in the third period but it wasn’t enough to get out of the terrible start and the 4-0 hole that we got into in this game. There was finally some good to come out of this game, which makes it even more frustrating at the same time. That third period was impressive. But why do we always have to try to come back after digging such a lousy hole? If they played like they did in the third period tonight the whole game, we would’ve won this game. It’s ridiculous. The offense got clicking tonight with Tage back and we had a lot of good chances. We outshot the Red Wings 32-27 but with the brutal defense in the first two periods, we couldn’t complete the comeback and ended the game getting outplayed by an expected goal rate of 3.06-2.77.
We head to Boston to face the Bruins on Thursday, and I don’t expect much out of that game. That’s for sure.
Go Sabres.
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