Senators 4, Sabres 2
Sabres pay the penalty
Senators cash in three power-play goals
OTTAWA -- The door to the Buffalo Sabres' dressing room was closed for nearly 15 minutes late Tuesday night and Lindy Ruff apparently had the floor all to himself.
Following what has to rank as one of the more bizarre defeats of his 12 years as coach, Ruff aired out his team after it took nine mostly-foolish penalties to turn a two-goal lead into a 4-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Place.
"The message [from Ruff] we can't really talk about right here," said defenseman Henrik Tallinder. "It was not really good words."
When Ruff emerged to meet the media, he lasted three questions and exactly 54 seconds. But his words were crystal clear.
"Very disappointed. Embarrassed," Ruff said when asked how exasperated he was with this group. "I'm embarrassed for our fans, embarrassed for the way we played the last 40 minutes. It's not acceptable this time of year."
Sure isn't. For 55 minutes, the Sabres had as many penalties (9) as shots on goal.
Playoff teams don't take seven penalties in a row at one stretch. They don't commit lazy interference and hooking infractions, don't take retaliatory shots with their elbows. They don't blow two-goal leads in back-to-back games. They don't get outshot, 36-13, when their season is on the line -- posting their lowest shot total of the entire season. And they don't finish a season series 1-4-1 against an opponent whose playoff hopes were gone by Christmas.
But the Sabres managed to do all of that Tuesday.
The sum of the parts provided the impetus for Ottawa to collect three power-play goals and a fourth that came nine seconds after another penalty ended.
Brendan Bell had two of the power-play tallies, including the tying goal at 6:07 of the second period and the clincher at 11:26 of the third. Daniel Alfredsson added the other, capping a two-on-one break by netting a perfect Jason Spezza pass at 3:30 of the third to snap a 2-2 tie.
"It's definitely frustrating," said Jason Pominville, who had a goal of his own and an assist on Toni Lydman's tally to stake Buffalo to its lead. "We had the lead early and got pucks deep. After that we just got undisciplined and they'll make you pay."
Mikael Tellqvist was a workhorse in net for the Sabres in his first start as he could not be blamed for any goal.
The out-of-town scoreboard is pretty irrelevant at this point if the Sabres don't get their act together. But for the record, Buffalo remains three points behind idle Carolina for eighth place and two behind ninth-place Florida.
Tallinder was the biggest culprit on the penalty parade, getting nailed three times. He was whistled for hooking at 19:21 of the first and Ottawa got back in the game just as he was getting back into the play when Dany Heatley scored at 1:30 of the second.
Tallinder took a foolish interference penalty at 5:39 of the second and the puck was in the net 28 seconds later on Bell's first goal. He was also hit for holding later in the period but the Sabres killed that one off.
Buffalo took five straight penalties in the second period as Ottawa had a 13-1 advantage in shots. Buffalo had none in the final 17 1/2 minutes.
"Most of them were really [good] calls," Tallinder said. "And to have that happen after a pretty good first period too? How do you win games doing that? It's unacceptable. What do you do? We had to come out way better than we did in the second."
Toni Lydman for interference. Dominic Moore for boarding. Thomas Vanek for tripping. You get it.
The coup de grace was Drew Stafford's elbow on Heatley at 2:55 of the third in response to a Heatley shove. It took Alfredsson 35 seconds to score what proved to be the game-winner. Then Bell's insurance goal came with Paul Gaustad off for elbowing.
The penalties played havoc with ice time for Buffalo forwards. In the first 40 minutes, for instance, Vanek played just 8:08.
"[The good first period is] followed by lack of discipline," Ruff said. "Some of the penalties we took were penalties you can't take. If you're going to win a game, you can't take those."
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Reader comments