Buffalo Sabres Good Effort Doesn’t Pay Off

The Buffalo Sabres lost another game on Thursday night, but it wasn't for a lack of effort.  After their mandatory 5-day break, the Sabres returned with what appeared to be inspiration, but the result was still the same.  They fell to the New York Rangers 4-3.

It didn't help that they gave up the first goal of the game only 1:24 from the opening faceoff.  And it certainly didn't help that they gave up the winning goal just 1:03 after they had tied the score for the third time in the game.  Then with the goaltender pulled in favor of the extra skater and working on the power play they came close to tying it a fourth time, but this team is not very adept at scoring goals so they were left to absorb their 34th loss of the season in 45 games.

With the talent they have on this team and even when they give an honest effort, this team seems to lack hockey IQ.  On what turned out to be the winning goal, goaltender Robin Lehner badly misplayed the puck putting himself out of position and the rest of the team was late in coming back to defend a wide open net.  And it all started by being careless coming out of their own zone.  So even with a good effort, they get nothing out of it.

Goal scorers for Buffalo were Kyle Okposo and Rasmus Ristolainen both on the power play and Justin Falk.  Robin Lehner stopped 27 of 31 shots.

The Sabres are back home on Saturday afternoon to host the Dallas Stars.