Buffalo needs to stick to the game plan for the full 60 minutes.
By Chris Ryndak / Sabres.com
The Buffalo Sabres lost to the Boston Bruins Tuesday night by a 3-0 score at KeyBank Center. Jake Debrusk scored midway through the second to give Boston the lead and then they added two empty netters in the final two minutes of regulation. Robin Lehner made 30 saves.
Here’s what you need to know.
About last night
From the Lexus Postgame Report…
If there was one lesson that Phil Housley wanted the Buffalo Sabres to learn from a 3-0 loss to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night, it was that the Bruins had found success by playing the type of game the Sabres are striving to develop.
The characteristics of that game, Housley said, were patience and simplicity. The Sabres showed those qualities during the first period on Tuesday, but deviations in the second and third ultimately paved the way to a loss.
“In the first period, you saw the execution was there, the decisions were there, the simple game was there,” Housley said. “OK, we didn’t score, but it’s not a time now going into the second period where you change. You’ve got to stick to the game plan and eventually you’ll break through.
“It just seems that sometimes we’re taking things into our own hands and it just keeps coming back at us. We’ve got to realize if we just stay with the course of our game plan, eventually it’ll break. You’ll get a good bounce, you’ll get a shot off the shin pad. … We’re cracking.”
Buffalo only managed 19 shots in the second and third periods combined, and DeBrusk’s goal came as the result of a turnover on a breakout pass from Rasmus Ristolainen to Jack Eichel that Housley said was indicative of a greater problem.
“We have to learn in those situations we can’t get away from that [first] period,” Housley said. “We had a great period, now we’ve got to take that into the next period. We may not score in the second period, but we can’t change that. We shouldn’t be the ones that are going to crack, and then the other team finds some holes in our game and we’re spending too much energy playing defense.”
“We’ve got to stick to the game plan and make sure that we keep pushing forward and making sure that we’re executing through the neutral zone,” alternate captain Zach Bogosian added. “That kind of killed us a little bit tonight. We got waves of momentum going forward and then we couldn’t execute through the neutral zone.”