Sabres learn hard lessons from Pens
Published: February 01, 2010, 9:49 pm
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PITTSBURGH — Player after player in the Buffalo Sabres' dressing room said the team has to learn from Monday's 5-4 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. What is on the educational agenda?
Lesson One: If you're going to err, don't do it when one of the best players in the world is on the ice. Penguins captain Sidney Crosby showed that with three goals.
"We made the mistakes to the wrong guy, obviously," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "He wasn't missing."
Lesson Two: When playing against the defending Stanley Cup champions, be ready. The Penguins opened the scoring on an odd-man rush just 47 seconds into the game.
"First shift we gave them a three-on-one," Sabres center Paul Gaustad said. "That can't happen."
Lesson Three: Don't use a two-goal lead as reason to relax. The Sabres' 3-1 lead midway through the second period turned into a 5-3 deficit before the teams headed to the dressing room.
"All in all we lost the game in 15 minutes of hockey," captain Craig Rivet said. "We tighten up in 15 minutes, and this is a very different game."
Lesson Four: Late rallies make the game interesting, but the need for them means something went wrong early. The Sabres climbed within a goal with three minutes to play and had several opportunities to tie it, but goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury kept the puck out of the net when it mattered.
"That's the part that frustrates us the most is the fact we came back and we were still there," Sabres center Derek Roy said. "It's one of those things where you can't let your team get in that position. We're going to learn from it."
The long list of mistakes Monday brought an end to the Sabres' two-game winning streak but continued their road woes. The sellout crowd of 17,029 in Mellon Arena saw the Sabres fall to 0-4-1 in their last five road games.
"We played well sometimes, and part of the game we didn't," Gaustad said. "There's lapses. It cost us."
There are times when defensive mistakes won't crush a team. Against some squads, an off night by the goaltender won't result in a loss. When both those things happen against the Penguins, teams can expect a tough result.
Roy, who ended an eight-game scoring slide, teamed with Thomas Vanek and Tim Kennedy to build the Sabres' 3-1 advantage. Then Pittsburgh took over.
Crosby scored a power-play goal with 9:07 left in the second. Evgeni Malkin took a breakout pass and fed Jordan Staal with 5:54 left to tie the game. Crosby scored the next two goals on Buffalo mistakes to put the Penguins up by two.
First, Sabres goalie Ryan Miller missed defenseman Tyler Myers with a pass behind the Buffalo net. Crosby pounced on the miscue with 2:30 to go. The captain scored his 37th goal to tie for the NHL scoring lead with 1:05 left on a two-on-one, keeping the puck to allow his team to beat Miller for the fifth time on 16 shots.
"You should learn that you've got a two-goal lead, you play a tighter game than that. You don't hand them those opportunities," Ruff said. "It was a good lesson. Two-goal lead, we should be better than that. You've got to give them some credit. They jumped on the opportunities, and I think they proved tonight why they won the Stanley Cup."
Tim Connolly set up Jason Pominville for a point-blank slap shot with three minutes left to make the score 5-4. They had their chances but couldn't connect.
The Sabres' next chance to apply their lesson plan comes Wednesday when they host the Ottawa Senators in HSBC Arena. The Sens come to town on a nine-game winning streak and trail the first-place Sabres by five points in the Northeast Division.
"We're going to learn from it," Rivet said. "We're going to clear up a few things that we can be better at."
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