Sabres unable to overcome early mistakes in loss to Avalanche

Less than a minute had ticked off the clock at KeyBank Center on Sunday night when Nikita Zadorov sent a pass from behind his own net off the boards in the neutral zone and onto the stick of Colin Wilson, stationed all the way at the opposite blue line.
Wilson had snuck behind the Buffalo Sabres' defensive duo of Nathan Beaulieu and Rasmus Ristolainen and was promptly joined by linemate Alexander Kerfoot. Kerfoot buried a feed from Wilson on the 2-on-0 rush, giving the Colorado Avalanche a lead just 43 seconds into the contest.
The goal was characteristic of the lapses that would plague the Sabres for the rest of the night in a 5-4 loss

"We just totally got away from a simple game, getting pucks deep, forechecking, working in the offensive zone," Sabres coach Phil Housley said. "We wanted to play an east-west game, turning pucks over through the middle of the ice. … They have a terrific rush game and we just fed it and we got on our heels."

Despite their puck management, the Sabres entered the third period trailing 3-2 thanks to shorthanded goals by Benoit Pouliot and Casey Nelson. That changed after Johan Larsson took a penalty for boarding, which set up a power-play goal from Tyson Jost scored 3:03 into the period. Gabriel Bourque added to Colorado's lead less than four minutes later.
Ryan O'Reilly, already with two assists on the night, scored a 5-on-3 goal later in the period and Evander Kane scored to bring the Sabres within one with 2:52 remaining, but they never closed the gap.
Robin Lehner made 22 saves in the loss.
"We made too many turnovers from the start," O'Reilly said. "We tried to play an east-west game, that's not our style. We had to keep it a little simpler off the bat to get some stuff going and we didn't. We just fed their transition and obviously they got ahead, and it was tough to climb out of it."
It was an uncharacteristic night for Ristolainen, who was involved in turnovers that led to Colorado's second and third goals. The first mistake came with Buffalo on the power play in the first period, when the puck skipped past the defenseman at the blue line and found its way to Matt Nieto, who scored on a shorthanded breakaway.
Early in the second period, Ristolainen was forced into a defensive-zone giveaway by Kerfoot and linemate Gabriel Landeskog, who then found Wilson alone for another breakaway goal. Ristolainen ended up with just 19 seconds of even-strength ice time in the period.
"I don't think the game was going his way, so I just decided to mix up the pairs," Housley said.
"I played bad and that's a coach's decision," Ristolainen added. "Got to respect that."
The Sabres were playing their first full game since news broke that Jack Eichel would be out indefinitely with a high-ankle sprain. Eichel sustained his injury early in their win in Boston on Saturday night, but they were able to overcome his absence because they played a detail-oriented game.
Their goal coming into Sunday's game was to replicate that performance, but they got away from it early and never quite got it back.
"Coming in, we had a little different mindset against Boston when we knew were just going to play a hard game all night and kind of commit," O'Reilly said. "Tonight we got a little lazy. ... It's disappointing because we could have taken that one."

Shorthanded advantage?

For better or for worse, the Sabres have been on the ice for more shorthanded goals than any team in the NHL this season. They found themselves on both ends of the spectrum on Sunday, receiving shorthanded goals from Pouliot and Nelson but allowing one to Nieto.
It was the second time this season that the Sabres scored two shorthanded goals in the same game, with the first instance coming against the New York Islanders in Brooklyn on Oct. 7. The Sabres are now tied for the league lead with nine shorthanded goals but sit second only to the Avalanche with nine against.
An aggressive forecheck from O'Reilly and Pouliot led to Buffalo's first goal on Sunday, which tied the game at 1-1 in the first period. O'Reilly won a battle in the Colorado zone, gained possession and took his shot on Colorado goalie Jonathan Bernier.
Pouliot cleaned up the rebound for his second goal in as many games.

Nelson's goal, the first of his career, was the product of aggressive decision making in the neutral zone. The defenseman saw a lane to rush to the net, collected his own rebound off an initial shot and banked a wrap-around attempt into the net off Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson.

"The puck got up to me and I kind of just took off," he said. "I saw I had some room, usually I don't do that on the PK but I saw an opportunity and I took it."

O'Reilly stays hot

O'Reilly led the way with three points for Buffalo, including the 400th point of his career with the assist on Nelson's goal. He now has 15 points (8+7) in his last 15 games.

"Ryan had a terrific game," Housley said. "You could see he was prepared, he was willing to go to the hard areas, he was doing everything right and he got rewarded for it. … He did everything he could do to help us win a game.

Up next

The Sabres will host the NHL's top team in the Tampa Bay Lightning at KeyBank Center on Tuesday night. Coverage on MSG-B begins at 6:30 p.m. with the GMC Game Night Pregame Show, or you can listen live on WGR 550. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7.
Following their matchup with the Lightning, Buffalo's next home game will be a Kids Day matinee against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday, Feb. 17. With the purchase of one full-price 300-level ticket, up to four additional kids tickets can be purchased for $15 each. More information can be found here.