Sabres forced to play from behind again in loss to Jets

WINNIPEG -Over the past month, one particular area of strength for the Buffalo Sabres has been their ability to rebound from losses. Entering their game in Winnipeg on Friday night, the Sabres hadn't gone two games without earning at least a point since winning in Colorado on Dec. 5.
That streak came to an end against the Jets, in part because of another trend that's been true for the Sabres as of late. When games have started poorly, they've often ended the same way, which was the case in a 4-3 loss.
The Sabres trailed 2-1 coming out of the first period after allowing a pair of goals from the blue line, one from Dustin Byfuglien on the power play and another from Jacob Trouba, and found themselves playing from behind for the remainder of the game.

"I think it comes down to just being able to play a full 60," Sabres forward Scott Wilson said. "I think we played spurts of good hockey and made a stretch for it, but we've got to come out in the first period and show some emotion, get the guys together and start from the beginning of the game instead of starting halfway through the second."

Special teams played no small part in the loss. Winnipeg, which entered the game with the fourth-ranked power play in the league, went 2-for-4 with the extra man while Buffalo went 0-for-5 (although one Sabres goal, from Marco Scandella, came just two seconds after a power play had expired).
Phil Housley found himself lamenting not the performance of his penalty kill, but the rather the nature with which the penalties were taken. Both penalties that led to Winnipeg goals - a high-sticking call against Sam Reinhart and a tripping call against Zemgus Girgensons - were taken in the offensive zone.
"You think about the game and how we had to play the game, it seems like it's a lot of the same questions with a lot of the same answers," Housley said. "It starts out, we take a penalty 200 feet from our net. You can't afford to do those kinds of things against a good team like this, especially a power play that's top four in the league.
"Those ones kill you, which it did. There's bits and pieces of our game that are good, but there's just a lack of consistency throughout the whole game."
On Winnipeg's first three goals, the Jets impaired the vision of Sabres goalie Chad Johnson with their presence at the net front. After Byfuglien and Trouba scored on goals from the point, Blake Wheeler made it 3-1 in the second period with a heavily-screened wrist shot on the power play.
"I don't like the result, but I felt good about where my positioning was," Johnson said. "It was just hard to find pucks. They were getting it to the point and getting it through quickly and getting shots through quickly. Yeah, it was really hard, they have some big bodies that know where to be in front."
Johan Larsson scored to bring the Sabres back within a goal prior to the second intermission, but Bryan Little was able to clean up a rebound for the Jets to restore their two-goal lead on the very first shift of the third period.

"It's just little details in every shift that can make a difference, and I don't think we understand that right now, that you have a responsibility in your own end to protect your net," Housley said.
Offensively, Housley was unhappy with the team's approach to shooting the puck both at even strength and with the extra man. The Buffalo power play was for the most part successful from a possession standpoint, but Housley felt the players were trying to be too precise with their shots.
The methodology he'd like his team to employ could be seen on Scandella's goal, a quick shot from the right faceoff circle.

"It seems that good teams do that," Housley said. "They know that they don't have an opportunity to pick a corner and have a really good look so they try to pass it off the pads, try to create a second chance or an opportunity. We're trying to be too fine in that area. Our shot selection definitely has to be better."
Wilson scored to bring the Sabres within one with 7:43 remaining in regulation, a one-time wrist shot off a feed from Evan Rodrigues that beat Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck to his glove side. That was as close as the Sabres would get to a comeback.
It wasn't as lopsided as their 6-2 loss in Minnesota, but it wasn't the performance they wanted, either.
"That was nothing that we wanted last night," alternate captain Ryan O'Reilly said. "Again, tonight, we did some things really well but it just wasn't there for the entire game. Whether that's getting in our heads or slowing down, it affected us too much."

Scoring droughts come to an end

All three goal scorers for Buffalo entered the night in the midst of long scoring lulls. Scandella's goal was his first of the season, while Larsson's snapped a 34-game drought.
Wilson's goal was his first in 29 games this season and capped a solid return peformance after the forward sat the last four games as a healthy scratch.

"It's nice to get that one," he said. "I've been fighting it this year, so that first one feels good. It would have been a lot better with two points with the guys."

Up next

The Sabres will conclude their long stretch of seven straight games away from KeyBank Center against the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday afternoon. Coverage on MSG-B begins at 12:30 p.m. with GMC Gamenight, or you can listen live on ESPN 1520. Puck drop is scheduled for 1 p.m.