One team approached the game like it had to win the game in order to clinch a playoff berth. The other team showed up to play a scrimmage.
Care to hazard a guess at which approach the Sabres took?
There was nothing socially redeeming about this game if you are a Sabres fan,
The home team was out-scored, out-shot, out-worked, out-coached, and out-classed.
Backs against the wall, the majority of Sabres players rolled over and played dead to at the feet of the Canadiens.
“We didn’t have enough effort,” a dejected interim head coach Ron Rolston said.
“We didn’t have enough players going. We had too many passengers.
Too many passenger, for the second game in a row.
Miller, Ott, Kaleta, and one or two other kids showed ip and played a passionate game. The rest simply gave a half-hearted effort when their teammates needed better than their best.
The Canadiens landed 42 shots on Miller and Enroth. The Sabres could only muster 15 shots on Montreal's backup tender, Peter Budaj.
This was Buffalo's second consecutive putrid performance. They haven't been eliminated from the playoffs yet. They are still mathematically alive. Then why the walking dead routine against the Habs?
Ryan Miller said that his teammates didn't come close to executing the game plan that was created to contain the high-flying Canadiens.
" We got our butts kicked", a dejected Miller said.
Cody Hodgson is one of the young guys who is being counted on to play a bigger role on this struggling team. After the Montreal blood-letting, CoHo was baffled:
“That was an embarrassing loss. They played a lot better than we did and we, collectively as a group, didn’t match it.”
The Sabres lacked focus, smarts, effort, and discipline. The Sabres gave the Candiens eight power play opportunities. Playoff teams don't become unglued as easily as the Sabres have been lately.
On the Sabres’ work ethic: “That was an embarrassing loss. They played a lot better than we did and we, collectively as a group, didn’t match it.”
The Sabres starting goalie was extricated from the wreckage after 40 minutes, not because of his poor play, but instead because the forwards and D left him to fend for himself. Miller faced 28 shots before heading to the bench.
Steve Ott told me afterwards: "Our effort was terrible".
Take a good look at Ott's face. He gave it up for his teammates. To bad most of them didnt do the rest for him. Thanks sabres.com.
After his press scrum, Ott was untying his skates when a reporter asked him if his team has thrown in the proverbial towel.
"Seriously? Write this down: NO!!! Write it. My answer is NO! I'm a f***** pride guy, and you ask me that question?!!"
If the passengers played as hard and passionately as Ott, Kaleta, and Miller do/did, the Sabres would be punching their ticket to be a participant in the playoffs. Instead they are a a spectator.
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