Game 25: Reality Check

After racing out to a 4-0 lead, the Buffalo Sabres watched the Colorado Avalanche roar back to deliver an embarrassing 5-4 loss.

BUFFALO — If ever there’s a telltale sign of a team’s maturity, it’s how they respond to big, emotional situations.

The Buffalo Sabres’ response to racing out to a 4-0 first period lead and chasing Colorado Avalanche starting goalie Alexandar Georgiev was to, in the players’ words, think the game was going to be easy and be able to cruise to a victory.

Instead, the Avalanche got a goal back in the second period after a poor turnover by defenseman Connor Clifton led to Nathan MacKinnon scoring. Even still, the Sabres entered the third period with a three-goal lead and needed a solid, quiet period to salt the game away and end a three-game winless slide.

Instead, the Avalanche paid the Sabres back for their four-goal first period with a four-goal third period of their own and left KeyBank Center with the two points Buffalo thought they had locked up after 20 minutes in a 5-4 come-from-behind win.

“It sucks, it just sucks, honestly,” Alex Tuch said. “We need to be better; each and every guy needs to be better. It’s honestly horseshit. Pardon my French, but it is. We left Upie hanging, we left each other hanging, we weren’t working for each other after the first period. We thought it was going to be easy; they were just going to go in a hole. That’s the former Stanley Cup champs over there. One of the best players in the world, one of the best defensemen in the world. You can’t give them opportunities like that and, yeah, it’s total crap.”

Nathan MacKinnon had two goals while Joel Kirivanta, Logan O’Connor and Artturi Lehkonen also scored to send the Sabres to their fourth straight loss (0-3-1) following a three-game win streak.

Among the many, many losses witnessed in this arena since the beginning of the playoff drought, this one with a team very much intent on being part of the wild card hunt in which they took a team that features MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Cale Makar and Devon Toews for granted ranks as one of the most egregious in that time.

“I think we thought it was going to be easy in the third, they were going to shut it down,” Tage Thompson said. “They’re a good team; they’re going to have a push. I think their push intimidated us. I think we let it fold us, and we didn’t look like we had any confidence to make plays or execute anything coming out of our zone. It looked like when we had it on our stick we didn’t want it and just got rid of it. They obviously took advantage of that and go in the neutral zone, quick transition back into our zone, and then once they were in our zone we were just running around. So, a lot of panic in our game in the second and third. Upie bailed us out a lot. It could have been a lot worse.”

More from a nightmare evening and what should be a wake-up call to the room ahead.