The concern for the Buffalo Sabres through the first week of the 2024-25 campaign was whether they were mimicking last season’s lack of scoring, as they scored one goal in losses to New Jersey and Los Angeles. After their 6-5 overtime loss to Pittsburgh at PPG Paints Arena on Wednesday, the concern is whether they can limit the opposition’s offense, which was the same problem the 2022-23 Sabres had.
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The Sabres seemed to be brimming with confidence coming off a 5-2 win over Florida on Saturday, quickly chasing Penguins starter Tristan Jarry, as Tage Thompson, Jordan Greenway, and JJ Peterka scored on the first five Buffalo shots, but Buffalo allowed Pittsburgh to hang around and failed to build on a 3-1 lead.
Drew O’Connor narrowed the lead to 3-2 with a short-handed goal, Jesse Puljujarvi tied the game late in the middle frame, and Evgeni Malkin put the Penguins in front early in the third with his 500th career goal.
“I thought our puck management in the second period was terrible,” Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said after the game. “You know (Pittsburgh) was going to press, and we played too much one-on-one hockey……You turn it over around the top of the circle, you’re basically breaking them out, and we probably did that four or five times in the second period.”
To their credit, the Sabres got off the mat and responded with a pair of goals in 40 seconds from Peterka and Ryan McLeod to re-take the lead 5-4, but with goalie Joel Blomqvist pulled for the extra attacker, Malkin’s blast from the faceoff dot dribbled past Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Rickard Rakell fired it into the open net to tie it.
In overtime, following a Tage Thompson tripping call, Sidney Crosby completed the comeback with his first of the season, converting an Erik Karlsson goalmouth pass for the game-winner.
“At the end of the night, we were just not strong enough around the net,” Ruff said. “You look at some of the goals, you’ve got to be stronger than that.”
Buffalo will hope to get back in the win column on Thursday in Columbus.
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