Buffalo falls to an anemic 11-19-5 away from the KeyBank Center.
By Ryan Wolfe / Diebytheblade.com
Another game and another underwhelming effort from the Buffalo Sabres.
On the day that marked the 55th birthday of Phil Housley, the Sabres played arguably their worst game of the season.
It was not the usual Buffalo game, where we would see some stumble out of the gate but later a semblance of order.
From opening puck drop to the final whistle, Colorado outplayed Buffalo in every aspect of the game.
Just looking at the shots-on-goal alone, the Avalanche tallied more than double the shots that the Sabres had – 43 to 18.
It is beyond clear that aside from physically being on the ice this afternoon in Denver, the Sabres were just not checked into the game this afternoon.
Colorado would open scoring in the second period after Nathan MacKinnon put on a bit of a show. MacKinnon was checked to the ice by Jack Eichel at his own blueline, got back up and skated past Rasmus Dahlin – all while maintaining puck possession.
From there, MacKinnon was off to the races and fired an uncontested wrist shot past Carter Hutton.
MacKinnon’s 35th of the season, at 3:14 of the second period, put Colorado up 1-0.
Colorado would strike again in the third period, this time off the stick of Mikko Rantanen on a 4-on-3 power play.
Rantanen possessed the puck and dished it to the stick of Tyson Barrie. Instead of loading a shot up, Barrie passed back to Rantanen. From there, he re-collected the puck and fired a wrist shot from the faceoff dot, to the left of Hutton.
Rantanen’s 30th of the season, at 10:13 of the third period, gave Colorado a 2-0 lead.
With Hutton pulled for an extra attacker, Colorado’s Gabriel Bourque would score his first goal of the season, which put a bow on this game for the Avalanche.
The final buzzer sounded and the Buffalo Sabres would fall to the Colorado Avalanche, 3-0.
Brian Koziol from WGR tweeted, “Housley on if pride needs to be addressed: “We will evaluate this game and look at this very closely.”
This loss pushes the Sabres record to 30-29-9, which puts them at 69 points in 68 games played.
Buffalo has lost 4 straight games, 6 of 7, and 10 of their last 12.
Heading into Saturday night’s games, the Sabres sit 10 points out of the final Eastern Conference Wild Card spot with one game in hand over Montreal (79 points in 69 games).
Buffalo next takes the ice on Tuesday, March 12 when they play host to the Dallas Stars at the KeyBank Center.
Sabres call up Nylander Sunday
The Buffalo Sabres on Sunday announced the team has recalled forward Alexander Nylander from the Rochester Americans.
Nylander (21, 6-foot-1, 192 lbs.) already has set career-high totals in goals (12) and points (31) in 49 games with Rochester this season. He has also tied his career high with 19 assists and posted a plus-11 rating. The recall comes on the heels of a four-game goal streak with the Amerks.
In his last six games, Nylander has totaled seven points (4+3). The Calgary, AL. native joins the Sabres for the first time this season after tallying two points (1+1) in seven career NHL games played during the last 2 seasons. A first-round pick (eighth overall) in the 2016 NHL Draft, Nylander has totaled 86 points (30+56) in 165 career AHL games.