Predators 2, Sabres 0: Teams visibly without energy, provide little entertainment
Lackluster Sabres draw a blank
Nashville's Rinne gets first shutout
The Buffalo Sabres were downright unwatchable Monday night. Too bad HSBC Arena was filled to the brim with folks who came to take a look.
The Sabres' 2-0 loss to the Nashville Predators before a sellout crowd of 18,690 was about as flat an effort — by both teams — as we've seen since the NHL lockout.
Little skating, lots of clutching and dump and chase were the hallmark of this snoozer. Only a few hits here and there, and few scoring chances.
It took more than 48 minutes for the Predators to finally break through as Jason Arnott eventually capitalized on a Clarke MacArthur giveaway to snap a scoreless tie with 11:53 left. Old friend J.P. Dumont's diving swoop of a loose puck with 9:20 to go was all the insurance Nashville needed as backup goalie Pekka Rinne made 30 saves — only a couple were difficult — for his first career shutout.
"There wasn't much going on in that game for 40 minutes," said Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff, whose team has dropped two straight after big wins last week over Boston and Pittsburgh. "There wasn't a lot of energy by either team. It was a turnover fest. Our fans were frustrated and I understand why. That was a frustrating game to watch."
It was the third game in four nights for both teams and it showed. Neither club had much energy for anything and there wasn't even a sniff of a confrontation between dressed enforcers Andrew Peters and Wade Belak. There were as many errant passes as you might see in your average house league game in the Amherst Pepsi Center.
Pity the fans who were subjected to this one as well as Sunday's Bills game. About the only positives for them: They were dry instead of getting soaked like they did at The Ralph, and it was a value game on the Sabres' variable price structure. So maybe they got in for as little as 22 bucks, which they probably think was still about 21 too many for what they saw.
MacArthur was the one Sabre who had the most to ponder. His ill-advised pass up the middle to Daniel Paille was intercepted by Joel Ward and the Sabres never got the puck out of their zone as Nashville finally snapped the scoreless tie.
Ryan Miller stopped Arnott on a one-timer right after the giveaway and a few seconds later thwarted Greg DeVries from the left point. But the puck popped into the air and Arnott batted it home on the backhand.
"It started with me there. ... I'll take the blame for that," MacArthur said. "You can't make mistakes in a 0-0 game like that so it's tough. I tried to throw it over to Paille and the guy jumped in front. It was a tough play. I've got to know better than to do that."
Arnott's goal was his team-high 13th of the season. Dumont scored his fifth courtesy of defenseman Shea Weber's 13th assist. Miller made the stop on Weber's point shot but the rebound fluttered to the goalie's right and Dumont made a headlong dive to sweep it just over the line.
The Predators held Buffalo's leading goal scorers, Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville, to just one shot on goal apiece. Defenseman Nathan Paetsch, inserted into the lineup because Craig Rivet was a late scratch due to an upper-body injury, actually led the team with four shots.
"Our best lines weren't good enough," Ruff said. "Jochen [Hecht's] line and [Derek Roy's] line weren't good enough. They didn't generate enough."
"It's definitely frustrating," Pominville said. "You've got to put pucks to the net. We didn't give up too many opportunities but we didn't produce enough to win."
"It was a lot of chip-in, chip-out," MacArthur said. "There wasn't a lot of flow in that game but that's no excuse. They weren't getting any bounces either."
A subdued Ruff could only shake his head when pondering the outcome.
"You want to take quality scoring chances and I don't think you can find a handful by either team," he said. "You can find 20-30 turnovers by both teams. It was as frustrating a game as I've stood behind [the bench] in a long time."
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