The Buffalo Sabres put forth a listless effort in a 3-1 loss to the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Saturday, stumbling out of the gate by being outshot 17-2 and falling behind 1-0 in the first period. The Sabres responded with a better effort in the final 40 minutes, but played catch-up the entire contest.
“I thought our compete was terrible. (It’s the) worst competing, skating, moving (our) feet that I’ve seen.” Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said after the game. “It’s not the guy that has the puck, the guy away from it. I thought we played some one on one hockey. We we didn’t move our feet, we didn’t win races for the puck. At the start of the game when everybody has energy. It’s hard hockey, and we lost the battle.”
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Pavel Zacha and Mark Kastelic staked the Bruins to a 2-0 lead, which they held until the middle of the third period, when veteran Jason Zucker scored the Sabres first goal of the season, but Buffalo could not break through on Jeremy Swayman, who made 21 saves in Boston’s third victory of the season. Ruff said after the game that his best players have not been able to break through and will need them to step up to right the Sabres ship.
“I think you saw in the third period when we started getting pucks to the net, even from tough angles, we got some bounces. We had Krebs in the slot alone. We had (Dahlin) in the slot alone that we didn’t connect on.” Ruff said. “We’re too much on the fancy side. Until we we put the boots on and go to work and realize that the only way you’re going to win hockey games in this league is to outwork the other team.”
Owen Power returned to the lineup after missing the season opener with an illness and played 22:07 and was -1 on the night. Alex Lyon made 28 saves in his second start, and it is expected that the veteran will get the start on Monday afternoon against the Colorado Avalanche.
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