While one Buffalo professional franchise continues to enjoy success and is likely making another trip to the playoffs, the Buffalo Sabres are continuing their roller coaster ride, as they fell back under .500 with a 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Similar to their 7-5 loss to Montreal earlier in the week, the Sabres made defensive miscues and provided Philadelphia numerous opportunities on the power play. Buffalo fell behind 4-0 before they were able to mount any offensive response.
“When you start a game and you take the two penalties we took, you haven’t learned enough yet about playing on the road,” Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said. “We missed some assignments, which gave (the Flyers) better looks. Early in the first period, we had two missed assignments, but that gave them opportunities that we don’t normally give up.”
After a shaky performance in the win against the Blues, goalie Devon Levi was sharper but unable to keep the Sabres in the game, allowing four goals on 31 shots and falling to 2-5-0 on the season.
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“You can’t blame (Levi) a lot, really,” Ruff said. “This game wasn’t about Devon, just look at the first shift, the way we forechecked, we were easing into the game. We’ve talked about how we need to play in the first period to get off to a better start in games.”
Buffalo held forwards Tage Thompson, Jordan Greenway, and goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen out, and hopes to get all three back when they start of the California leg of their four-game road trip in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
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