Double Minors: Sabres roll over in Columbus

Chris Ostrander

Nationwide Arena has never been good to the Buffalo Sabres, that trend continued last night in the form of a 5-1 thrashing at the hand of the NHL’s worst team.

Any number of adjectives could describe the Sabres’ play last night, flat, passionless, horrible, ugly. The list goes on. It was one of those systematic losses that can be attributed to every player from the net out.

The Blue Jackets chased Jhonas Enroth after another shaky outing and Drew MacIntyre saw extended action for the first time as a Sabre. Enroth was facing a firing squad for much of the game, the Sabres were being outshot 23-8 at one point before narrowing the margin to 25-19 by the end of the second period.

There was nothing redeeming at all about this loss. While many have painted a happy picture from the catastrophe that was a blown pair of two-goal leads against Boston, there is nothing good to take away from this loss. Your goaltender was bad, the defensive zone coverage continued to let the goaltender down and there was little life offensively.

  • Zack Kassian recorded his first NHL point, congratulations to him for finding the scoresheet. He was only credited with one hit, but knowing how the NHL real-time scoring works that really could be three or four hits. I didn’t hate his game in his debut, I’ll hold off on further judgement until he has a few more games under his belt.
  • As for T.J. Brennan, there isn’t much you can say to convince me he is twice the hockey player Marc-Andre Gragnani is. Gragnani wouldn’t hit water if you threw him out of a boat, he might as well have just watched Letestu score the first Columbus goal. MAG is useless as a defenseman and even more so on this roster. Brennan, on the other hand, is physical, engaged in the play and effective as a defender and puck mover. Keep him, send Gragnani away.
  • Enroth wasn’t good again last night. He wasn’t good, nor was he horrible against Boston. So much for everyone thinking trading Ryan Miller was a viable option. It seems, as of right now, that Enroth isn’t fully capable of carrying the load, he certainly has lost quite a bit of that consistency that put him in this situation to begin with.
  • Losing Robyn Regehr could be a detrimental blow to this club. The defensive zone is a complete cluster as it is. Losing the only stay-at-home player the team has might just send this team to the skids.

Three Stars

1. Rick Nash

2. Marc Methot

3. Vinny Prospal

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