Buffalo prepares to hit the road on Saturday against the New York Islanders.
By Chris Ryndak / Sabres.com
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Jason Pominville made a big impact in first game as a Sabre since 2013, scoring twice, but it wasn’t enough as Buffalo fell to Montreal in a 3-2 shootout loss on Thursday in Phil Housley’s head coaching debut.
Buffalo is now 0-0-1 to start the season as they prepare for Saturday night’s road game against the New York Islanders.
Here’s what you need to know.
About last night
“It was a pretty special night,” Pominville said in our game recap. “It would have been nice to hit the net there in the shootout and find a way to win the game, but I thought overall the effort was definitely there. We did a lot of good things. If we play this way on a consistent basis we’ll give ourselves a good chance to win a lot of games.”
Pominville opened the scoring on the power play 8:30 into the game, and after Montreal tied it late in the first, Buffalo regained the lead 22 seconds into the second on Pominville’s second goal.
However…
Phillip Danault scored a shorthanded goal with 11:59 remaining in the third to erase a 2-1 lead for Buffalo. The Sabres had looked dangerous on four prior power plays and had scored on one; they seemed primed to extend their lead when Andrew Shaw was sent to the box for interference.
Instead, missed execution led to the Sabres being stuck in their own zone and Danault squeezed a wraparound attempt between the post and the skate of goalie Robin Lehner.
“We sort of took the foot off the gas there,” Sabres coach Phil Housley said. “We could’ve made it a two-goal game and really got some momentum back.”
“It’s a fast play,” Lehner said. “I get there with my skate and it goes up on me and hits my pad and it goes in. It happens in a split second and it’s frustrating, but it’s a lucky goal.”
Overall, though, Housley felt encouraged by the way the team executed his system. When they controlled the pace of play in the second and third periods, they did it with a dominant forecheck that saw defensemen pinching down the boards to extend plays.
The players echoed those positive feelings.
“That’s the game we want play,” Sabres forward Jack Eichel said. “Take it to the other team, put a lot of pressure on them. It’s something we’ve been working on with our F3, reloading over the top, our D going down the walls, keeping plays alive, making it hard for them to break the puck out. I think when we had sustained pressure in zone we were doing that.”
Other notes from @SabresPR
Buffalo had a franchise-record 10 players in the opening night lineup who weren’t on the team’s roster during the previous season. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it’s the most new players an NHL team has had in its lineup since the 2011-12 Florida Panthers (11).
Pominville’s first goal gave him 457 career points as a member of the Sabres, breaking a tie with Miroslav Satan for 11th-most points in franchise history. He now trails Thomas Vanek by 39 points for 10th on the franchise list.
With Pominville’s goals, the Sabres have now had a newly acquired player score in five of their last seven season-opening games.
Evander Kane’s assist on Pominville’s second goal gave him eight points (2+6) in his last eight games against Montreal. Kane also finished the night with 11 shots on goal, tying his career high (3x) and logging the most shots by a Sabre since his last 11-shot game on March 5, 2017 at Pittsburgh.