Game 33: Spiral out

Anything that could've gone wrong, did for the Buffalo Sabres in a 6-3 loss to the Maple Leafs

BUFFALO — Something Jason Zucker said following the Buffalo Sabres 6-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs for their 12th consecutive defeat that summed up the game as well as this brutal run of play.

Zucker was in no mood to talk about another loss and as one of the few grownups in the room on the roster. He’s shouldered the load as the guy to talk to about a lot of these defeats and given that he’s a guy who just got here, that’s a heavy load to bear.

With the way the game played out, Zucker was the unwitting center of attention on the ice when he thought he set up the tying goal in the first period on a slick play to Alex Tuch after Toronto grabbed an early 1-0 lead. Instead, Zucker was found to have committed a high-sticking offense when he got the puck in behind Chris Tanev and in the process of crossing over around him, caught him in the face with his stick.

The referees didn’t see it, play carried on, goal scored, but the offense was caught by one of the linesmen who reported it to the referee while the Sabres celebrated the goal. After a conference, the goal was taken off the board and a high-sticking double-minor was handed out to Zucker instead. Auston Matthews scored with 30 seconds left in the four-minute penalty and instead of a 1-1 game, Toronto had a 2-0 lead and the road to a 12th straight loss was paved.

“I think you got to earn your breaks, and we’re not doing that right now,” Zucker said.

Their 12th straight loss was one where there were some signs of the attitude expressed by Rasmus Dahlin and Dylan Cozens on Thursday was apparent. They made it clear that the time for talk was over and the time for doing it—it being winning—was now and the start of the second period had some promising shifts and the kinds of plays with the puck you’d expect from a team that’s got their act together.

But it didn’t take long for Toronto to make it 3-0 and even though J-J Peterka made it 3-1 soon after, it took only 2:05 for the Leafs to make it 4-1 and roll from there.

“There’s such a fine line right now about allowing these guys to gain some confidence,” Lindy Ruff said. “I mean, they’re teetering, obviously. I know that. We’ve got some young guys that I want to just play. I need them to play. You look at what they brought inside the game tonight. I thought we had some guys that really skated well. But for all the good we did we ended up beating ourselves.”

More ahead…