The Buffalo Sabres defeated the Edmonton Oilers 5–1 last night in Buffalo. Goals from Bowen Byram, Beck Malenstyn, Tage Thompson, and a pair from Noah Ostlund propelled the Sabres past the Oilers.
Jack Roslovic scored the only Oilers goal with a beauty one-time snipe from distance assisted by Leon Draisaitl and Andrew Mangiapane.
In net, Stuart Skinner stopped 23 of 27 for a SV% of .851. On the other end, the Sabres started a rookie, Colton Ellis, who stopped 32 of 33 for a .970 SV%.
Here are the stories of the game:
Lacklustre effort from the Oilers
This was a deserved loss against one of the worst teams in the league. While playing down to a lesser team’s level is a common theme in sports, the really good teams are able to play well against every team they face. That is just not what the Oilers are right now.
There wasn’t really anyone that was noticeable for the Oilers tonight. At times the bottom six were able to apply some modest pressure, but those were very short lived stretches. The goal by Roslovic was a beauty but that was really the only bright spot in this very disappointing game.
It really just looked like the Oilers didn’t want the win badly enough. The first line, supposedly revitalized by the return of Zach Hyman, didn’t really achieve anything or look like they had the ability to, and the same went for the second line. Now these things happen, a team isn’t going to be their best every night. Maybe there was a fire drill in their hotel the night before, or the chef at dinner forgot you can’t serve chicken medium rare, or one of the fifteen Buffalo fans sabotaged the bus and McDavid had to not just figuratively, but literally, put the team on his back and carry them to the rink.
Whatever it was though, it’s been happening too often to the Oilers this season. While there is still a LONG time left in the season (there are still 126 points to be had) and it’s not time to panic yet, that was a disheartening performance.
Poor defence once again
I feel like I keep going back to the same well when picking on the defence, but they just need to play smarter hockey. It isn’t necessarily just the defencemen themselves, but they are responsible for a lot of turnovers in their own end and a lot of poor first passes that get intercepted in the neutral zone.
Noah Ostlund, on his second goal, carried the puck behind the net and waltzed out front to enough empty land to start a homestead. Neither forward nor defenceman decided to challenge him while he took a free shot from a prime spot.
The Byram and Malenstyn goals resulted from lengthy defensive zone time wherein everybody just started to look lost. Coverage was poor and nobody was winning puck battles. At one point in the third period Oilers commentator Jack Michaels repeated the words “Shot from the point, save, Buffalo recovers the puck, pass back to the defence” three or four times in a 15 second period. It sounded like he went to the bathroom and played a recording of himself.
Simply put, the Oilers could play twice as good as they did tonight and not make the playoffs.
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Buffalo rookie stands tall in net
Buffalo rookie goaltender, Colten Ellis, played excellently last night, letting in only one goal on 32 shots. You couldn’t say that he stole the game—Edmonton gave it up willingly—but he made some great saves, robbing Draisaitl on one of his patented cross-ice one-time shots from just above the goal line.
The rookie from Whycocomagh, Nova Scotia has had a long journey to the NHL. He was drafted 93rd overall in 2019, spent some time in the QMJHL before bouncing around the ECHL and AHL for four years. Then he was picked up off of waivers by Buffalo in the offseason and finally made his NHL debut on October 22 this year in a win against Detroit.
He has a .914 Sv% and a 2.76 GAA, and three wins in four starts. Maybe the Oilers should trade for him.
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