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 | The Sabres spent all night chasing the Leafs, putting up one of their most embarrassing games of the year. | | Toronto - October 29, 2014 - Following every Sabres game, we’ll be taking a little look at the previous night’s action with a little segment called “good, bad and ugly”. Expect a loooooooot of ugly.
The Good
There really wasn’t much to be happy about in this one, so I had to get a bit nit-picky to find something that actually felt like a positive. That said, the penalty kill should earn big marks in the eyes of anyone who watched that game.
Starting in the first, with what actually began as a power play yet quickly morphed into a 5-on-3 for the Leafs because the Sabres are the Sabres, the team killed off penalty after penalty and did it with a solid team effort. Tyler Myers and Zemgus Girgensons looked strong on the kill; a very nice positive sign for Sabres fans.
They killed five of six on the night, giving up a power play goal to Phil Kessel late in the second. On a night where the Sabres managed 10 shots (more on that later), this was the one true positive to point to.
The Bad
Despite trailing 1-0 heading into the third, this game was never, ever close. Yet again, the Sabres were dominated in all aspects of the game and even being in a 0-0 game late into the second period never really gave anyone the feeling the Sabres were in it.
When the opposing goalie is smirking and saying it’s the easiest shutout he’s ever earned, you know things are an undeniable tire fire. I’m a Sabres fan so I can’t hide my bias when I say that I’m fine with this for obvious reasons, but it’d be nice if they’d at least feign being in games. Right now, this is a pee-wee team at best.
If it weren’t for the goaltending, this would be so out of control, the NHL would have to consider implementing a mercy rule just for the Sabres.
The Ugly
Before typing this out, I considered just writing “10 FREAKIN’ SHOTS????” over and over for three paragraphs, but there should probably be a little more than that here, so I’ll try my best not to just scream via my keyboard.
That said, how in the blue hell does an NHL team manage 10 shots on net in an entire game in 2014? You can dumb luck your way to 10 shots these days, yet the Sabres had to try their hardest to achieve that sterling plateau.
Seriously, the offense is so completely non-existent and it feels like they don’t even have a game plan. Though, the game plan could be “one guy rushes in, loses the puck, then hauls ass back on defense.” And based on the way that game went, that’s probably the system in place.
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