Sabres drilled in a laugher
Blue Jackets' dominance draws ire of home crowd
An ugly game certainly brings out the sarcasm in people. Buffalo fans got their licks in Friday night.
When Sabres goaltender Patrick Lalime made a save early in the third period, the HSBC Arena crowd let out a loud cheer that was clearly mocking in tone. And after Columbus increased its lead to 6-1, a guy up in the 300 level played off Buffalo's goal chant and yelled, "I want seven!"
Of course, when a goalie's save percentage is hovering around .500 and the team is suffering through its worst loss of the season, sarcasm is the least of the worries.
Lalime and the Sabres had a night to forget, as Columbus cruised to a 6-1 victory. The loss dropped the Sabres to 1-2-1 in their past four games. Worse, they look nothing like the team that was once 6-0-2.
"It's humbling sometimes when you lose a game like this," Sabres captain Craig Rivet said.
It's easy to blame Lalime, and some of the blame does lie with him. He had waited 18 days to get back on the ice since his last start, but he was off it after just 25 minutes, 13 seconds. Every other shot he faced through the first two periods went in, starting with the second one. Coach Lindy Ruff pulled him after the Blue Jackets took a 4-0 lead on their eighth attempt.
"I've got to be better than that, no doubt," Lalime said. "Obviously, not the kind of start you want to have. I think every chance they had, somehow they found a way to put it in."
Fans in Buffalo are accustomed to seeing fast starts. Usually, it's the home team that comes out firing. This time, the Blue Jackets' three first-period goals put the Sabres in their biggest first-period hole at home in nearly two years. The last time they started so slowly in HSBC Arena was Dec. 2, 2005, when San Jose struck four times in the first period of a 5-0 win.
Lalime would have needed to make great saves to stop the first three Friday. R.J. Umberger scored on a three-on-one to open the scoring. Old friend Michael Peca scored a highlight-reel goal to make it 2-0, diving across the slot to tip a waist-high shot from the point. Then Derick Brassard's laser from the faceoff circle banked in off the post.
But the fourth goal fit in with the atmosphere of the arena: lazy. Columbus dumped the puck into the Sabres' zone, and Lalime corralled it. He slowly placed it next to his net, looking down as Jason Chimera stormed at him. Chimera stole the puck, sent it to Manny Malhotra in the slot, and Ryan Miller was on his way to the crease after that.
"I wasn't pulling him because it was his fault," Ruff said. "It looked like that because of the fourth goal, which, you've got to blame him on the fourth goal. But you can't blame him on the first three."
Lalime ended up allowing two more goals in the third period. Miller is getting the start tonight in Pittsburgh against last year's Stanley Cup finalists, so Ruff put Lalime back in for the final 20 minutes. He finished with 17 saves on 23 shots.
"We need to be better in front of Patty," Rivet said. "You look at the shots and the goals, and you tend to obviously want to point fingers at the goaltender. But I think you ask anyone in this room, I certainly think it has nothing to do with the goaltending. It has to do with the guys that were playing in front of him, and how we played was not good enough."
Said Ruff: "We did some good things in the game, but we did some really dumb things, too."
Ruff was really unhappy with the top line of Derek Roy, Thomas Vanek and Ales Kotalik (who left with a hamstring injury). They were on the ice for the three-on-one that opened the scoring, and the coach vilified their decision-making.
"We're not there as a team yet," Ruff said. "The Roy line, that's not good enough."
