You know the old adage, the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts and the 2019-20 Buffalo Sabres are no different.
Everyone knew the flaws this team had coming into the season but they'd been able to overcome those through the first six games of the season. The Sabres left Western New York on Monday riding a 5-0-1 record into California for a three game road-trip in The Golden State. They got to that point by playing a fast, 200' game with support in every zone buoyed by a deadly powerplay that kept teams at bay in style and/or on the scoreboard.
After downing the Pittsburgh Penguins and steamrolling the New Jersey Devils to start the season, the new look, positive-thinking Sabres hit Columbus and found themselves in a heavyweight bout with a desperate team. Buffalo overcame two deficits in that game against the Blue Jackets and rode the powerplay (2/4) to get it to overtime before losing 4-3. They followed that up with three consecutive wins--one in overtime, one in the shootout and a 4-0 blowout of the Dallas Stars before heading west.
The Anaheim Ducks, like the Blue Jackets, are a bigger team that can play a fast game in a rambunctious manner. In other words they've proven to be adept at playing desperate, playoff-style hockey. Both teams stifled the Sabres at every turn by playing a heavy, high-pressure game that saw them in Buffalo's passing lanes and in their faces. Anaheim was particularly ornery last night and took 12 minor penalties including a double-minor.
The Ducks were shorthanded seven times last night but were able to shut Buffalo down save for a goal on the Sabres first powerplay attempt late in the first period. That goal by Victor Olofsson, his NHL record eighth consecutive powerplay goal to start a career, put Buffalo up 2-0 and up to that point they were playing the style of hockey that got them 11 of a possible 12 points to start the season. However, after that they lost their way.
"We were ahead for deserved reasons," said Sabres coach Ralph Krueger to the gathered media post-game. Krueger noted the "speed" and "simplicity" his players started off with to get to that point. "And then we lost the way," he said.
Following the Olofsson goal the Ducks countered with one of their own shortly thereafter but it was disallowed on a Sabres offsides challenge. Anaheim came right back and scored again to officially make it 2-1 and it would be the first if five unanswered goals by the Ducks as the Sabres fell apart.
"It seemed like the no-goal almost worked against us versus for us," said Krueger. "We let our guard down there. The next shift they got the [game to] 2-1 and we really lost our way then, right into the third period. Of course our powerplay did have opportunities...but we didn't get it done there either.
"It was an off night, beginning with the second period, I'd say."
The Ducks tied the score just :57 seconds into the second frame went up 3-2 with their first powerplay goal of the season at the 9:24 mark then finished off the second period by scoring their fourth goal with only :13 seconds left to enter the intermission with a 4-2 lead. After that it was locking it down and relying on possibly the NHL's best goaltender, John Gibson, to shut it down the rest of the way with the Ducks adding an empty-netter for good measure.
This is a good "back-down-to-earth" moment for the Sabres as they came into the game flying high off of the Dallas win and had their way for 15 or so minutes with the Ducks before maybe getting a little too full of themselves. They came into the Columbus game the same way and found themselves down 2-0 at the end of the first period but were able to come back. Gibson and a tenacious Anaheim team defense was the difference between them coming back against the Ducks but in both instances Buffalo got away from the team game that they'd been successfully playing and tried to get too fancy.
"We were complicated with the puck," said Krueger, "We got complicated early in the second period, we had a couple of turnovers that gave them momentum. They got a lot of energy out of their goals coming back into the game, we just couldn't turn it and the game got away from us."
Sabres captain Jack Eichel didn't feel as if the team handled the momentum swings of the game all that well either. He admitted that they might have been trying to get a little to cute on the powerplay and that a goal in that situation produces a momentum swing. Eichel also said that "they'd gotten away from what made them successful against Dallas."
That said, Eichel was one of two players for Buffalo that seemed to be able to ratchet up his overall game in a playoff-like atmosphere. He scored determination goal that saw him block a shot in his own end and score on a sweet cut across the goal crease with a defender hawking him the entire time. It was an elite goal from a player who's just beginning to realize how much elite talent he has within him. Winger Jeff Skinner was the other Sabres player as he pumped nine of Buffalo's 33 shots on goal last night and was responsible for getting the puck to hop out of Gibson's blue paint right to Sam Reinhart who fed Olofsson for his powerplay goal. Skinner was his usual feisty self while engaging in the rough stuff, barking at the opposition and flashing that patented smile that says he enjoys those extra curricular moments and conversations.
Other than that, various players held their own with minimal mistakes, like defenseman Marco Scandella and forward Marcus Johansson while others struggled, some mightily. Including goalie Linus Ullmark, who could have been better. Those that really struggled were the ones hurt most by the individual play and the five-man-as-a-unit Buffalo had from the second period on.
One thing we all knew with this team as they got off to their hot start is that they do not have enough individual talent to play an individual game and hope to win. They have flaws, many flaws, but as a team they were able to overcome them.
The Sabres suffered their first regulation loss last night as the individual parts didn't add up for the whole and Krueger gave an indication that some changes are afoot for tonight's game against the Los Angeles Kings. As to be expected, he hasn't made any changes to his lineup while his team was winning, save for Evan Rodrigues in for the injured Conor Sheary, but last night Krueger said that they were going to "take a hard look at the lineup" and that they'll decide this morning what to roll out.
Buffalo plays a Kings team still transitioning away from their glory days back in the early-mid 2010's. Los Angeles finished 30th out of a 31-team league last year and have two wins and only four points in six games this season. However, most feel they're on the right track even while basically playing pond hockey with a group of aging veterans and some good young players. The Kings have given up a league-worst 4.67 goals-against/game while scoring a 13th-best 3.33 goals/game. They have a new head coach in Todd McLellan who took over for the generally reviled Willie Desjardins and are led by a group of veterans including two-time Stanley Cup-winners, Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown and defenseman Drew Doughty, all of whom seemed to have peaked in an era where heavy, Western Conference-style hockey and great goaltending could dominate, as evidenced by their Cup wins in 2012 and 2014.
We're pretty sure the Kings are pouring over the Ducks/Sabres game from last night and one should expect a similar style of play vs. Buffalo at Staples Center. That said, the Kings don't have the overall speed of the Ducks and their goaltending has been atrocious with that league-worst goals-against average as well as an NHL-worst .841 save percentage. They have the fifth-worst penalty kill (65%) and the fifth-worst powerplay (9.5%.)
All of that screams opportunity for Buffalo to get back on track and like Krueger said last night, "our reaction (to the Anaheim loss) is what's important now." But if they get too cute or complicate things too much again, they'll be in for a difficult night and an "off night" in Anaheim might be the beginning of a negative trend, which is something they don't want or need.
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