The Buffalo Sabres had hoped that their first victory of the season would right the ship after opening the year with three straight regulation losses, but on the heels of a 6-5 overtime loss to Pittsburgh, the Sabres fell behind early and played catch-up all night in a 6-4 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena on Thursday.
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Ryan McLeod, Owen Power, JJ Peterka, and Jiri Kulich scored his first NHL goal for Buffalo, but the game was littered with defensive zone giveaways and failures on the part of the Sabres defense that allowed the Blue Jackets to take an early 2-0 lead and never trail in the contest.
“(It was) a rough night by our (defense), some of the puck play probably (cost us) four goals”, Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said after the game. “It’s surprising, I mean plays that we didn’t make for a couple of games, and all of a sudden, we’ve made some ill-advised plays that creates momentum for the other team.”
After getting mostly excellent performances from both Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Devon Levi through four games, the young tandem each gave up six goals against the Penguins and Blue Jackets, but where the Sabres have struggled from the start has been on special teams.
The Buffalo power play went 0-2 against Columbus and are scoreless in 17 man advantage opportunities this season. The Sabres penalty killing has cost the club as well, allowing a pair of power-play goals in Pittsburgh’s comeback on Wednesday and allowing Yegor Chinakhov’s opening goal on the man advantage.
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