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Quick Hits: Penguins vs. Sabres

buf pit


Things were happening in Pittsburgh tonight, I guess.

The Buffalo Sabres entered the Consol Energy Center fresh off a big overtime victory over the Philadelphia Flyers a few nights ago.

When the puck dropped, it was clear that Buffalo was playing with against a much better squad.

It took less than a minute for the Penguins to open the scoring. Pascal Dupuis put home his first of the season, and the hockey was underway.

Pittsburgh would score again almost 8 minutes into the first period, this time off of the stick of Patric Hornqvist. The Penguins seemed to be heading toward an easy 2 points.

Buffalo wouldn’t go down without a fight.

In a clip of hockey, a little over two minutes, goals from Jamie McGinn and Nicolas Deslauriers tied things up at 2.

McGinn would tip home a blue point shot with eyes from Rasmus Ristolainen, his 2nd of the season.

As for Deslauriers, he was stationed at the goal mouth and just waiting rabidly for the puck. Ryan O’Reilly (more about him later) put the puck perfectly on Deslauriers’ stick and the rest was history. Deslauriers’ goal went in the books as his 2nd of the season.

Pittsburgh would regroup in the first intermission and come back very strong in the second.

To explain what happened in the second, I’ll just give you the cliff notes to save the pain.

The Penguins scored twice. Ben Lovejoy scored his 1st of the season, after he gained possession moments after leaving the penalty box and put a puck past Chad Johnson. Evgeni Malkin was next. Malkin scored his 4th of the season on the power play, which ended up being the game-winning goal.

Matt Moulson was able to score his 3rd of the season, late in the 3rd period, but it would not be enough.

The Sabres generated some excellent pressure as the game grew older, but all empty chances.

With this loss, the Sabres fall to 3-7-0 (6 points) on the season.

Buffalo heads home directly after the game because they’ll be hosting the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday night at the First Niagara Center.

Time for some delicious quick hits:

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      • Is there so such thing as a relief goaltender?

 

Chad Johnson got another chance to prove his worth in goal for the Buffalo Sabres tonight.

Things did not go very good at all for Johnson.

4 goals on 29 shots.

vomits

Tonight is the 5th time in 8 starts that Johnson has allowed AT LEAST 3 goals. See the above GIF for how most Buffalo Sabres fans feel about that.

Johnson clearly is proving to not be the guy who can hold things over until the return of Robin Lehner. Here’s to hoping that Linus Ullmark can take the puck and run with it. If not, buckle up because we’re in for a long season.

    • Mike Weber back, and worse than ever!

I always like to highlight how bad Mike Weber is at his job. Tonight, I decided to let some tweetbot friends do work for me. These are some quality tweets (and it totally allows me to be lazy).

Are you happy now? You animals.

PS – Mike Weber, still bad.

      • Ryan O’Really Good Hockey Player

 

I feel like this should be a known fact by now.

We are 10 games into this season and Ryan O’Reilly has proven to be the best player on the Buffalo Sabres. There is no doubt about it.

Let me list all the good things Ryan O’Reilly does:
– logs a lot of ice time: leads all NHL forwards with 21:06 TOI
– wins faceoffs at a steady clip: 63% faceoff win percentage in last 4 games (73 total faceoffs taken)
– has 10 points (3 goals, 7 assists) in 10 games
– plays well with anyone (made Deslauriers look p good tonight)

I love Ryan O’Reilly. You probably love Ryan O’Reilly. We are lucky to have him play for our favorite hockey organization.

      • Shots, Shots, Shots

 

Heading into tonight’s matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Buffalo Sabres ranked T-7 with 31.4 shots for per game.

The Sabres managed to tally an astounding 53 shots on goal (!!!!).

Safe to say the Sabres’ average will move up a few ticks after the stats go live.

Every player who took the ice for the Buffalo Sabres tonight, aside from goaltender Chad Johnson, recorded a shot on goal.

Forward Jack Eichel led the team in shots on goal with 8. Jamie McGinn recorded 6 shots on goal, Brian Gionta recorded 5 shots. What a night from this forward group.

Let’s close out with a cool stat. Thanks to Sabres PR for this. Follow them on the tweets, if you already aren’t.

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