Tonight the Sabres played a horrendous game, still not breaking the nine year losing streak in Carolina, getting dominated in every facet of the game in a 5-2 loss to the Hurricanes.
Fun start to the game as Dylan Cozens and Jesperi Kotkaniemi dropped the gloves right off the opening draw, although Cozens pretty much got dominated in the fight. Always fun though.
Jordan Staal opened the scoring for Carolina 6:17 into the game, after the Sabres couldn’t clear the puck and Jordan Matinook got the puck right to Staal who tipped it past UPL. Pathetic defense for Buffalo, completely leaving Staal all alone right in front. The Canes quickly made it 2-0 in almost the exact same way as the first goal, with 12:03 left in the first. Bowen Byram fanned on the puck on a clear, and Rantanen got it to Sebastian Aho for an easy tip in on the 2 on 1 play, again with Aho left all alone right in front. That led to Lindy pulling UPL and putting Reimer in, although I wouldn’t blame Luukkonen at all on either goal, with horrendous defense for Buffalo. It quickly became 3-0 Hurricanes on the power play with 10:19 left in the first, on a nicely placed shot from Mikko Rantanen in the slot. The Sabres finally scored with 56 seconds left in the first, with Alex Tuch scoring with some nice patience with the puck on the powerplay to make it 3-1 on just our fourth shot of the game. We got completely dominated in that period on both ends of the ice. The defense looked so fucking pathetic, with very costly giveaways, and only having two shots until the powerplay to end the period, as we were outshot 18-4, and Carolina having 40 shot attempts. This team blows. Zero effort or passion for this team.
The Sabres played better to start the second than they played in the first, but with 4:08 left in the second period, Taylor Hall made it 4-1 Carolina off a great play by Jack Roslovic to set up Hall for his first as a Hurricane. Bad defense by the Sabres once again, this time by Owen Power. Still a bad period for the Sabres.
JJ Peterka got the Sabres back within two 1:15 into the third, scoring on a two on one with Ryan McLeod to make it 4-2. Without a ton of action, Seth Jarvis gave the Canes their fifth goal on the empty net with 2:11 left in the game. That’s all she wrote. Thank god this game’s over.
FINAL: Sabres 2, Hurricanes 5
What a fucking pathetic showing for the Sabres on both ends of the ice. Carolina completely dominated us tonight in every facet of the game. From start to finish it was bad. Horrible turnovers in our own zone that led to easy goals early. And the offense could get nothing going tonight. We got outshot 36-16, recording just 4 shots in the first, 5 in the second, and 7 in the third. We got out-chanced 18-5 and it clearly showed on the score, that’s honestly closer looking than the game actually was.
This loss pretty much sums up the franchise. Uninspiring, pathetic hockey that’s a clear cut step behind the rest of the league and no where close to being even a playoff team, let alone a contender to win the Cup.
“The Buffalo Sabres’ reason for existence will be to win a Stanley Cup”…my fucking balls it is.
Sell the fucking team Terry.
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