7 New Jersey power play opportunites to 2 PP opps for the Sabres.
Ilya Kovalchuk seemingly was given a free hall pass in the Buffalo zone. He was free to skip around and wreak havoc all night long without any resistance or fear. His ice time increased exponentially with every Buffalo penalty that commited.
Flawed straegy for the Sabres in that they chose to dance with NJ's best skilled players in Parise, Kovalchuk, Elias, and Henrique , rather than slug it out with the Devils grinders. Take bad penalties, play against the other team's best skilled players for long stretches oftime. Thats exactly what the Sabres did on Valentines Day. They gave the Devils PP a huge box of delicious Fowler' chocolates with huge bow on top as a gift.
Some would call it "desperate hockey". I call it stupid hockey. More than half of Buffalo's seven peanlties could have bee avoided had the Sabres decided to move their feet to their man, instead of whiffing with their sticks.
Why wake a sleeping giant like Kovalchuk?
Kovalchuk scored three goals and added an assist.
The goal is to keep the puck off of the stick of the other team's scoring threat(s). TheSabresflippedthe script and gave the puck to NJ's snipers, who killed them in the end.
Lets look at the Devils and their total ice time (TOI):
Kovalucuk: 25:04 TOI, 10:24 of which was on the PP. +2, 7 shots
Parise: 22:59 TOI, 8:36 of which was on the PP. +2, 7shots
Elias: 21:43 TOI, 8:38 of which was on the PP.
Clarkson: 20:16 TOI, 8:34 of which was on the PP. 5 shots.
Henrique: 17:32 TOI, +1.
Its living dangerously when you allow the other team's best players to pick you apart on special teams. The littany of stupid penalties killed Buffalo's line rotations, thus killing their continuity and five on five play.
Buffalo entered the game with the Devils in desperate need of two points to keep pace with the teams the 8-12th seeded teams. Instead, that were choked out by Kovalchuk's four point performance. On a night when 8th place Toronto lost in Calgary, their fourth straight loss, and Tampa lost, you'd think that the Sabres players would be cognizant of staying out of the sin bin.
No such luck.
The Devils PP scorched the Sabres in this one, scoring twice. After whiffing during a 47-second, two-man advantage, the Devils capitalized while Mike Weber was still in the penalty box for cross-checking. Dumb penalties killed Buffalo.
Four tripping penalties?!
For the second game in a row (both losses), Ryan Miller gave his team the saves it needed to win. His team failed once again to score one more goal than the other team. Miller cannot be blamed for the past two frustrating losses. He was full value in both games.
thanks, sabres.com
Lindy Ruff had every right to be frustrated by his team's effort vs. New Jersey
thanks, sabres.com
Thomas Vanek is at a loss for words. Penalties killed his team.
thanks, sabres.com
****
The intensity level doesn't decrease for the foreseeable future.
Practice today, then its off to Philly. Then its Montreal in Buffalo on Friday night, and, the Penguins in Buffalo Sunday.
This Sabres team is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you'e gonna get.
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