The Buffalo Sabres and Tampa Bay Lightning went at it last night in a tight, physical battle that ended in the shootout. Tampa came away with the 2-1 win and in the process extended their winning streak to eight games while the loss was Buffalo's fourth in a row (0-3-1.) Despite the loss, credit to the Sabres for making the Lightning work for it.
From Jack Eichel to defenseman Rasmus "Beastolainen" to goalie Carter Hutton to winger Jeff Skinner, who got in a heated tussle with Tampa's Brayden Point, and everyone in between, the Sabres as a team came to play and did everything they could to win against the high-powered Lightning. However, Tampa rolled out the skill in the shootout and came out on top.
The game last night had a playoff feel to it much like a late November matchup where Tampa ended Buffalo's franchise-tying 10-game winning streak. It was about as exciting as it gets that early in the season as Lightning won on two third period goals to complete the back-and-forth, come-from-behind 5-4 win. The talk afterward centered around the intensity of the game and electricity in the building and that there seemed to be a rivalry brewing between the two clubs.
'Rivalry' is an interesting choice considering the cities of Tampa Bay and Buffalo are some 1,200 miles apart with their two hockey teams even further apart over the last six seasons. At 285-146-41 the Lightning own the NHL's best record over that span and they're once again loaded for bear this year while the Sabres have the league's third-worst record at 165-244-61 and have struggled.
Last night was the fourth and final meeting of the season between the Sabres and Lightning. Buffalo had beaten Tampa in the first meeting, a hard-fought, 2-1 win in Buffalo, just three games into their winning streak. The Lightning most definitely took notice and came away with the aforementioned 5-4 win and in their third meeting of the season, Buffalo dropped a 5-3 decision on three unanswered Tampa goals in the third period. By the time last night's game rolled around, the Sabres, who were once at the top of the league, were outside the playoffs while the Lightning firmly entrenched themselves at the top.
If Buffalo had played the majority of their games since the streak with last night's intensity, they'd have done much better than the 11-17-6 record dating back to that November showdown with Tampa. The Sabres played like a desperate hockey club last night with individual efforts coming from all over the place and props to them for battling a team that's the odds-on favorite to hoist the Stanley Cup this year. Although Buffalo ultimately didn't have the horses to come out on top, especially in the skills competition that is the shootout, they did leave it all on the ice before falling just a bit short.
As a stand-alone, a 2-1 shootout loss in a hard-fought game against the top team in the league may equal nothing more than a moral victory, and most Buffalo fans are pretty tired of those. However, matching that intensity the rest of the season would mark a significant developmental change for a team that is still very young at its core. Although there are no guarantees that they'd make the playoffs with where they stand right now, at least they can be satisfied that they gave it all they had. And most in Sabreland would be OK with that.
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