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 | It took a comeback, but the Sabres rallied to win in overtime. | | Buffalo - December 15, 2014 - Following every Sabres game, we’ll be taking a little look at the previous night’s action with a little segment called “good, bad and ugly”. Expect a loooooooot of ugly.
Another game, another win. Let’s dive right into Saturday night’s 4-3 win over the Florida Panthers.
The Good
This isn’t about Jhonas Enroth, I swear. He wasn’t bad, but was far more human than he’s been in a while.
No, this is about the resiliency of this team of late and it showed in multiple ways. First, on the scoreboard. They were up 2-0 after one and then found themselves down a goal just one minute into the third period. Having Gionta tie it up around the 8:00 mark and then having Zadorov blast in the game-winner shows that this team is playing at a high confidence level right now. Before this streak started, Jokinen’s goal to open the third would have been all she wrote. Now? You can’t count out the Sabres.
They also happened to do this in the face of a pair of injuries on defense. Andrej Meszaros and Josh Gorges both left the game due to injury, leaving the Sabres short-handed on the back end. Tyler Myers stepped up huge, playing nearly a half hour while picking up an assist and finishing plus-three. Anyone who looks at box scores and says he’s not good needs to actually watch a game.
The Bad
What did I tell you guys about squandering leads? I know the Sabres are hot as hell right now, but that doesn’t mean they should go giving away leads. It’s especially bad given how well they played in the first period to come out and lay a big fat one on the ice to start the second. All that work undone in 4:51.
Also, a bad on the Panthers: how do you let the Sabres outshoot you? No one lets the Sabres outshoot them! This is team that gets outshot 2-1 and still manages to eek out a win. If you let this Sabres team outshoot you, a loss is probably in your future.
Going back to the aforementioned injuries: the Meszaros injury doesn’t mean much as he’s been a highly-paid pylon all year long, but losing Gorges sucks especially considering he’s already missed time this year. I like his style and attitude, so having him out there would be nice with such a young group. So long as he plays every Leaf game, I’m can live with it.
The Ugly
So it’s time we had some #realtalk. All this winning is great and all, but can we not make the gap between us and the first pick that great? I don’t trust Edmonton or Carolina to be even mildly competent this year, so being able to out-suck them with a seven point lead in hand is something that troubles me.
Again, the whole point of this year was to be super terrible so that Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel could take their place as the next Buffalo star. So now we’re going to play above our heads and risk losing out? I appreciate the effort and the winning has been nice, but stop it. Stop it right now.
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