Game 55: Mistakes were made... and punishment was delivered

The Buffalo Sabres lost a very winnable 4-3 decision to the Anaheim Ducks due in part to their own misdeeds with the puck.

Buffalo Sabres and Anaheim Ducks skate in warmups before their game on Monday afternoon. (Photo: Joe Yerdon)

BUFFALO — Losing games isn’t acceptable for any team, but losing them when you’ve more or less outplayed your opponent and everything they got was gifted to them by your own team? That’s worse. Unfortunately for the Buffalo Sabres, it’s just another kind of defeat in which they both weren’t able to overcome what they did wrong but also weren’t able to cash in enough on what they did right.

The Sabres were swept in their two-game season series with the Anaheim Ducks after a 4-3 loss Monday afternoon. The Sabres had copious scoring chances, many of which were snuffed out by goalie John Gibson who played brilliantly, but many others that just didn’t result in goals. They were also undone by their own turnovers and misplays, some of which came from their own top players and veterans.

It was a game they could’ve very much had in hand 30 minutes in and yet it’s another one for the loss column, and this one against one of the NHL’s worst teams. Not that it matters who it was against, the errors made would’ve been cashed in by any team.

“There (were) many opportunities for separation,” Sabres coach Don Granato said. “We paid for the mistakes we made. It wasn’t a game where we were awful and made (a lot of mistakes). It just, we paid for the mistakes we made, and we couldn’t obviously – with enough generated from the chance standpoint – didn’t convert.”

Let’s soak in the disappointment of yet another missed opportunity with an unfortunately regular outcome.