[ad_1]
TAMPA – Maybe the Buffalo Sabers season does not look as infuriating as their playing against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Bolts are the best team in the NHL with one mile, 17 points ahead of Calgary and the pace to threaten the 132-point record set by the Detroit Red Wings in 1995-96. But they struggle every time they see Buffalo.
The Sabers lost 1-2-1 to Tampa Bay this season after Thursday's 2-1 shootout loss at Amalie Arena. In the two losses of regulation, they led in the third period. They skate with the Lightning every game. There is passion on the ice. Real jam and grunts. The goalkeeper is net too.
This is the kind of hockey that would earn a lot of points against less important opponents, but it's a style that the Sabers rarely seem to find. Maybe the fear of embarrassment of the legion of Tampa superstars is a motivator that does not exist against other teams.
It's really a shame. General manager Jason Botterill insisted Wednesday about the confidence of this group of players. You see his goal in games against Tampa Bay, but not enough on other nights.
Play against the Rangers of New York, New Jersey or Florida as they did against the Lightning and the Sabers would probably have accumulated points over the last week. That did not happen and that's why they're six points in a playoff spot.
"We played with urgency, we respect their game," said winger Evan Rodrigues. "It's obviously a high-level team and we are playing in the right direction, we are defending properly and we are committed to it, so you have to face all the teams in the league if we want to win a few games here."
"It's so much easier to play when the team digs and plays hard all over the ice," said rookie defender Rasmus Dahlin, whose first-period goal was his seventh of the season. "You get more confidence." It's not fun to lose but this game makes us realize how much we can play. "
The Wraparound: Lightning 2, Sabers 1 N / A
It was a game that saw the Sabers slip away from their recent passive efforts that led coach Phil Housley to call them "soft" after last Friday's Ranger disaster at KeyBank Center.
Rasmus Ristolainen was a physical monster in this one while he was playing 26 minutes, 32 seconds, a figure that only eclipsed 27:23 of Victor Hedman, winner of the Norris Trophy in Tampa. Ristolainen had trouble with Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov in overtime after punching the Lightning star with a counter-control near the net just after a whistle. At the end of the qualifying period, Jeff Skinner and Brayden Point of Tampa Bay kicked in a game between scorers with 36 and 35 goals.
It was players who did not play their character. Put that with 70 shots combined with goal (a 40-30 lead for Tampa Bay) and this resulted in a fascinating affair that drew the crowd of 19,902 people.
"It was great to see how they reacted, we were under the skin of a guy and we did a lot of riveting," said Housley. "Every battle has been a fierce battle, we must continue to do it, we can not be satisfied."
Goalkeeper Carter Hutton was the best Sabers player. Among his 39 saves, he notably stunned Hedman during a breakaway in overtime.
"You're just trying to be patient," Hutton said. "It's a pretty big man and I did not think he was going to overplay me, but he can advance the puck pretty quickly with that long reach." I was just trying to be patient He waited and I was able to stay with him to keep it going.
Hutton was disappointed by the shootout, which saw Tampa score goals from Steven Stamkos and Kucherov while Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped Jack Eichel and Casey Mittelstadt. Kucherov had scored the only goal of his team in the match, becoming the first player in Tampa Bay to have recorded several seasons of 100 points.
"Kucherov has a glove that he uses a lot and I bit hard there and he undressed me," Hutton said. "There's a reason he has 100 points, Stamkos puts one under the bar, you obviously want to make a save, but they're really good players when you're 1 to 1."
Kucherov with a nasty shootout goal. Tampa wins. #sabres #blightning pic.twitter.com/WVkJwjdCAc
– Buffalo Sabers Games and Goals (@SabresPlays) February 22, 2019
Kucherov's goal in the second half was scored twice as Tyler Johnson slid a pass under Dahlin. The play began when Rodrigues' pass to Zach Bogosian in the slot was about to escape and the Buffalo defender's skate deflated, which caused a rush to the other man.
"I put it 6 inches too far ahead of him – if that connects, it's at a slot timer," Rodrigues said. "It's a grade A chance. It takes her a kick rebound and they go in the other direction, but I play this game every time. It comes out of Bogo's skate, it explodes in some way. so it's a tough rebound. "
The Sabers enter a calendar mill over the next nine days. This includes Saturday's home morning against Washington, two games in Toronto, another in Philadelphia and a home game against Pittsburgh.
Some lessons learned from the Tampa Bay games are more useful.
"I just loved the desperation, the urgency and the emotion we brought to the game," Housley said. "The guys were playing one for the other, we had a very good concentration and we started the game, we realized that we had played well against this team, eliminated the positives and our guys did a good job. very good job.We're to continue this effort. "
[ad_2]
Source link