Game 15: A loss with intrigue

The Sabres dropped a 4-0 decision to the Pittsburgh Penguins on the road, but Peyton Krebs scratch from the lineup added a curious subplot.

Mario Lemieux’s statue greets visitors to PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh (Photo: Joe Yerdon)

PITTSBURGH — Ever watch a game and it was lacking any kind of juice to it? That was Saturday night in Pittsburgh for the Buffalo Sabres.

The Sabres lost 4-0 to the Penguins. Tristan Jarry made 35 saves in the shutout, his third of the season in five wins (he’s 5-5-0 now) while Erik Karlsson had two goals including an empty-netter.

The Sabres got a solid game out of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen who made 36 saves and was victimized by a flukey goal from Evgeni Malkin who threw one off Luukkonen’s mask from the corner that went in and Karlsson’s first goal that went off of Erik Johnson’s stick on a Penguins power play. Even Drew O’Connor’s goal that made it 2-0 that sure looked like one Luukkonen should’ve stopped glanced off of Henri Jokiharju’s stick enough to dip under and glance off of Luukkonen’s arm into the net.

“I feel like we had a lot of chances to score tonight, didn’t,” Sabres captain Kyle Okposo said. “It’s just kind of one of those things when you’ve got to find a way to get one by him—by Jarry. You know, he played really well, and I think that they did a pretty good job clearing second opportunities. You know, if we get one in the second and make it a 1-1 game, it’s probably different. But yeah, we obviously didn’t do enough to score tonight.”

The shots were juiced up but there wasn’t a lot of second chances. Mix that in with many of Pittsburgh’s chances being dangerous and you’ve got a game that felt like an uphill climb from the opening drop. But there was some juice to this game after the game because what was believed to be a healthy scratch for Peyton Krebs may not have been…