Following a comeback win over the St. Louis Blues, the Buffalo Sabres had to be feeling pretty good. After all, the lineup going into the game with the Philadelphia Flyers would be missing some key pieces, but the Sabres had shown they can hang without them.
Then, the game against the Flyers happened. It was forgettable nearly from the opening faceoff. Let’s just get right into the three takeaways from the Sabres’ 5-2 loss to the Flyers, because it’s best for the fans and players alike to move on from it.
Sabres Have a Major Discipline Problem
One of Rob Ray’s keys to the game was for the Sabres to not take costly and untimely penalties. So, what happened? Connor Clifton took a cross-checking call just under seven minutes into the game. Zach Benson followed it up with an egregious slash that the Flyers ultimately cashed in on.
The Sabres are now tied with the Los Angeles Kings for the third-most penalties taken per game at 4.56 per contest. Ironically, only the Flyers (4.67) and Boston Bruins (5.11) take more penalties. It has proven to be a major issue.
Moreover, you can correlate how well the Sabres do with their penalty kill. When the team is on, the penalty kill is on. When it’s not, they are giving up power-play goals. These sloppy, lazy penalties have to start being reduced if anything is going to get consistently better.
Sabres’ Worst Effort of the Season
That was a train wreck. It’s understandable that there are major challenges with Mattias Samuelsson and Tage Thompson being injured, but that doesn’t excuse the kind of effort the Sabres put in against the Flyers.
Related: Mattias Samuelsson’s Injury Issues Creating Problems for Sabres
Other than a stretch of about 4-5 minutes in the first period, the Sabres looked like they were collectively chickens with their heads cut off. They ran around, frantically trying to keep up with the much more energetic Flyers.
Every area of the game was bad for the Sabres, aside from another power-play goal. Since ending their 0-for-22 stretch, they have been operating at a 30% clip on the power play, so that’s promising. But it was the only positive thing about the game.
Devon Levi Needs to Be Sent Down
Let’s make one thing clear immediately: the team around him was not good, but Devon Levi was bad. He routinely overplayed shots, finding himself way out of position more often than not. The score would have been worse if not for timely defensive plays.
Since Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen found his groove, Levi has become the clear backup. But now with James Reimer back in the fold, the play should be to send Levi to the American Hockey League (AHL) as soon as UPL returns from injury.
Levi needs to play every night in the AHL to hone his game and work on his confidence. This isn’t the kind of team that is built to limit what kind of action its goaltender sees. Keeping him around is only asking for his confidence to be eroded slowly over time.
Too Many Mistakes
From start to finish, there were simply too many mistakes made by the Sabres. Yes, it hurts not having UPL and Thompson in the lineup (Samuelsson’s absence may actually be a blessing in disguise). Having said that, it isn’t an excuse for the type of performance they gave in Philly.
The further into the season we get, the lesser the margin for error. The Sabres cannot go back and forth in the win-loss column like this. They need to string together wins sooner rather than later. With performances like that, it isn’t going to happen any time soon.
