Tonight in the second half of a back to back, the Sabres took a 4-2 loss to the Preds on the road in Smashville, playing pretty lousy hockey with the bright spot of Bowen Byram’s debut for Buffalo.
The Preds got Tim McGraw playing early, with Forsberg scoring on a one timer from Josi on the power play 3:53 into the game. The new kid Bowen Byram tied it right up though just 30 seconds later with a nice quick shot in his first game as a Sabres on a rip for his first shot!! Tie game! Luke Evangelista got Nashville the lead back with a tip in across the crease to put the Preds up 2-1, again on the power play. Not a great period for Buffalo, especially on the penalty kill, giving up two relatively easy goals for the Preds and we couldn’t stay out of the box. We were outshot 11-9, but very nice goal from Byram, which was great to see him get on the board in his first period as a Sabre.
The second period was scoreless and we didn’t play great in it, with Comrie actually playing really well to keep it a one goal game. We got outshot again in the second, 9-7, not really generating any great offensive chances.
Forsberg got his second of the game early in the third period, just 1:49 into it, with the Sabres playing quite poorly, especially Owen Power, leaving Forsberg right open in front for an easy goal off a good setup from Gustav Nyquist. It didn’t take much longer for Forsberg to complete the hat trick, putting Smashville up 4-1 with 13:17 on a wraparound goal. With 7:08 to go, Owen Power got us back to within two,, going to the net in transition right in front to make it 4-2, getting the goal on a D to D pass from Bryam. That’s all she wrote.
FINAL: Sabres 2, Predators 4
I know we were on the second half of a back to back tonight after last night’s decent (I hate saying that) 2-1 overtime loss to the Leafs in Toronto, but this game tonight was such a dull one. The Sabres offense got next to nothing going as we were completely outplayed, by an expected goal rate of 3.78-2.01 and out-chanced 14-13 despite outshooting the Preds 28-25. I thought Comrie was decent in goal with a few mistakes on the penalty kill crushing us. Smashville went 2/3 on their power plays, all in the first period, while we went 0/3 on ours. Bowen Byram looked good tonight in his Sabres debut on both ends of the ice, with a goal and an assist and solid defense from him.
Trade deadline tomorrow, let’s see how the roster changes and what that brings for the future of this team.
Let’s Go Buffalo.
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