It is sometimes the job of a head coach to put a positive spin on a negative result, and that was what Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff had to do after a 4-3 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Friday.
Coming off a clean sweep of Los Angeles, Anaheim, and San Jose in the Golden State and climbing into the final Eastern Conference wildcard spot, Buffalo faced the difficult task of coming home and playing two of the NHL’s better road clubs in Minnesota and Vancouver. The Sabres put forth efforts in both contests that on most nights would have been good enough to earn two points, but they ran into a brick wall named Filip Gustavsson, who made 39 saves in a 1-0 shutout win for the Wild on Wednesday, and only managed a point erasing a 3-1 third period deficit with late goals from Dylan Cozens and Alex Tuch.
Buffalo barely touched the puck in the extra frame before Conor Garland’s second of the game won it for the Canucks with 1:01 left in OT.
“It’s a heck of a point…..we just didn’t quite make the next play the whole game. The next play was there. We didn’t connect on that next play. Our power play was a little bit out of sync (and) didn’t connect on plays.” Ruff said. “(Vancouver is) a tough club. We knew that coming in. These last two games have been just tough, hard hockey.”
The margin between victory and defeat is always narrow and the Sabres learned that lesson in the two losses. On Wednesday, a first-period defensive miscue led to a four-on-one break and Kirill Kaprizov’s goal. Cozens losing his cool and drawing an extra minor for unsportsmanlike conduct resulted in the Canucks taking the lead on a Garland go-ahead goal.
“(Dylan) knows he can’t do it,” Ruff said. “Sometimes you don’t like a call, you’ve got to keep your composure. Sometimes you don’t like it when the goal is taken away, you’ve got to keep your composure. There are times in the game where you just have to show a lot of self-restraint, even the coach has to do that at times.”
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The Sabres play their third game in four nights on Long Island against the New York Islanders on Saturday. With their losing skid at two, they must have the two points to maintain pace with Boston, Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, and NY Rangers in the wildcard race. Buffalo returns home for a five-game homestand starting with tough contests against the Colorado Avalanche and Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday and Thursday.
Forward Sam Lafferty suffered a lower-body injury in the first period on Friday and will not be available on Saturday, which necessitated the call-up of winger Tyson Kozak from AHL Rochester.
James Reimer will make the start in the second of back-to-back games after Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen took the loss on Friday, while Ilya Sorokin is the likely starter for the Isles after Semyon Varlamov was in goal for the 5-4 OT loss in Washington on Friday.
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