Sabres @ Blue Jackets: 10/1/26 – Game Reactions/Recap

After a surprise of a fantastic season of magic to end the 15 year playoff drought, tonight the Buffalo Sabres didn’t start the year off great, losing 6-3 on the road in Columbus.

Both teams looked pretty sloppy early. The Sabres went to the power play and on our first power play of the season, Mattias Samuelsson ripped a quick shot after nice quick passing on the zone entry to make it 1-0 Buffalo, 7:21 into the game. Nice start to the year. The Blue Jackets didn’t take long to tie it up, quick in transition with Charlie Coyle embarrassing the Sabres defenseman and dropping it back to Cole Sillinger, who made it 1-1 with 7:09 to go. With 2:02 to go, the newest Blue Jacket gave Columbus a 2-1 lead as Matthew Knies fired it home right in front wide open. Bad. Just 48 seconds later, off a face off in the Sabres zone, Adam Fantilli redirected a Zach Werenski shot from the point and real quick it’s 3-1 Jackets. We might not be good this year. We’ll compete for a wild card spot all year and probably miss playoffs by 4-5 points. It’s early though, gotta come out strong in the second period. Not a great start, really on both ends of the ice.

The Sabres tied it up, with Jack Quinn causing a nice turnover in the Columbus zone, and firing a great shot past Greaves, making it a 2-2 game just 1:25 into the second period. Zach Metsa fights Olivier, impressively standing in there with one of the biggest heavyweights in the NHL to draw a 5 on 3 power play. Of course we didn’t score on it and almost gave up a goal right out of it, but after some back and forth, entertaining hockey, Matthew Knies got right on the crease for a quick tip in up front. Our defense looks bad, as does UPL. Konsta Helenius got the Sabres back within one, shelfing it right after a power play ended, making it 4-3 with 6:46 left in the second. We definitely looked a lot better in that second period.

With 5:39 left in the game and two seconds left in a power play, Val Nichushkin, who I forgot is on the Jackets now, sauced the puck to Sean Monahan to tip into the net and give Columbus and insurance goal. Bad penalty kill and Luukonen’s having a terrible first game of the season. With 2:07 left, Mathieu Olivier tossed it in the empty net (for the second time tonight, but this one counted) to end the game.

FINAL: Sabres 3, Blue Jackets 6

https://www.instagram.com/reels/Dd-W0cnuUij

This wasn’t a good game to start the year, especially on the back end. And not overly great offensively either. I wasn’t impressed with the effort tonight for the Sabres. Gotta win the home opener on Saturday against Patty Kane coming home with his lousy Blackhawks.