Ryan Miller has been playing very good hockey of late. Of course that really doesn’t mean much when the team surrounding him can’t score.
The Buffalo Sabres reached a new offensive low point this season, getting blanked in Ottawa for the first time this season as the Senators skated to a 2-0 victory. Ottawa was aided greatly by a mind-blowing eight penalties taken by the Sabres. Eight!
Buffalo has now scored just one goal in their last two games.
It doesn’t matter if this was Buffalo’s fourth game in six nights. There is absolutely, positively no excuse to take that many penalties. To me that just screams lack of discipline all over. Marcus Foligno led the way with two infractions. Tyler Myers, Pat Kaleta, Robyn Regehr, Jochen Hecht, Christian Ehrhoff and Jordan Leopold each drew one.
Utterly unacceptable.
Ottawa did their damage offensively in the second period with Erik Karlsson and Erik Condra scoring less than two minutes apart. Karlsson’s goal came when Buffalo was on the power play.
Buffalo outshot Ottawa, 42-31. Can you imagine how different this game could’ve went had they not spent so many minutes shorthanded?
The Sabres are now off until facing the Boston Bruins again at home on Friday. By then, they better get their act together. At 5-8-1, they’re going to soon find there’s not a lot of wiggle room when you struggle early in a 48-game season.
If you want to see the “highlights” from tonight, they’re at the top of the page courtesy of the Buffalo Sabres and NHL.com
