Sabres squander strong start in Game 5 loss, pushed to brink in East 2nd Round

BUFFALO –- There was a sense of confusion after it was all over, bewilderment, disbelief.

The Buffalo Sabres stood in front of their locker stalls and tried to explain how they had let this game slide, how three goals on four shots had turned into a 6-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Second Round on Thursday, how home had become so unfriendly, how they could be –- after that start -– staring at the potential end of their season. 

And one by one, they took the blame. 

“I think we just got too comfortable there,” goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen said. “I don’t think it’s anything too crazy. I’ve got to be better. The whole team has to be better. I don’t think it’s much more complicated than that.”

That was, indeed, the simple truth: The Sabres had gotten everything they could have wanted at the start. Not perfection, of course, but enough. 

They scored on their second shot of the game, a goal by Jason Zucker at 2:00 of the first period, when the puck ticked off his skate off a shot from Jack Quinn above the left face-off circle and past Jakub Dobes.

They scored on their third shot of the game, a goal by Josh Doan at 7:45 of the first, when he one-timed the puck from the top of the left face-off circle.

They scored on the fourth shot of the game, a goal by Konsta Helenius at 10:15, when he beat Dobes through his pads from the slot. 

The problem was, they allowed goals to Cole Caufield and Alexandre Texier in between those three scores, though the Texier goal touched off his skate and in. 

They had allowed Montreal air to breathe. 

“We got to make sure we have four or five really hard shifts after we score,” Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin said. “We kind of let them score right away on us, and that just kills our momentum. That's one area we've been talking about a lot, but we got to continue to get better at that and get ready for the next one.” 

Still, they headed into the second period with a one-goal lead. 

“I thought the vibes were good,” forward Alex Tuch said. “I thought mentality was good.”

And then it all fell apart.

Dobes would stop the next 32 shots. Montreal would score four unanswered goals. A lead turned into a deficit turned into a loss. 

“They kind of rolled over us pretty heavy there in the second,” Dahlin said. “They’re just quick on the puck the whole time, and just kept it down low in our end, and it's hard to find the rhythm when the other team is doing that, so that's what you got to learn from them.” 

They let up. They got comfortable. 

“I feel like every game we kind of haven’t played a good 60 minutes yet,” Luukkonen said. “Even though we’ve won some of the games, we kind of let our foot off the gas in some points of the game. Trusting our own process. Trusting our own game like we did against Boston. I think that’s the biggest thing right now.”

How do you do that? How do you let your foot off the gas in the biggest games of the season, in the playoffs, with control of the series on the line?

“That’s a good question,” Luukkonen said. “I think whatever’s been working, we have to continue doing that. We can’t change our game plan. Defensively, there’s some areas that keep happening, but like I said, I have to be better too. Everybody has to find something to be better at.”

That starts with their best players: Dahlin has struggled mightily in the series, both from a defensive perspective and a discipline perspective. Tuch, who had seven points (four goals, three assists) in six games against the Boston Bruins in the first round, has zero against the Canadiens and is minus-8. Luukonen allowed five goals on 23 shots and was pulled to start the third in favor of Alex Lyon.

“I’ve got to bear down,” Tuch said. “I’ve got to be better. I can’t play the way I’m playing right now. Just going to be will and determination, but I’ve got to move past it. I’ve got to move on to the next game, and I’ve got to be better for the guys in this room.”

It wasn’t just Luukkonen. It wasn’t just Tuch.

All of the Sabres were left with regrets, with disappointment, with a sense that they did not do enough. That they had had the game, the win, in their grasp and had let it slip through their fingers, their fourth loss in six games at KeyBank Center. 

They knew it. 

They will have a chance to extend their season, to earn another game back home in Buffalo, a Game 7 to decide which team will face the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final. But to do that, they will have to be better. They will have to win on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, ABC) in what will be a Bell Centre caught in the grips of madness, an atmosphere unlike any they’ve seen.

How do they do that? Is it just that they need to be better, that their best players need to be better?

“Yup,” Dahlin said. “Simple as that.”