Sabres Still Seeking To Find Their Two-Way Game

Michael Augello

Dec 2, 2023, 01:03

Michael Augello

Dec 2, 2023, 01:03

Buffalo gave up four or more goals for the 11th time in a 6-4 loss to St. Louis

The Buffalo Sabres were unable to follow up arguably their best two-way performance of the season in a 5-1 win over New York on Monday with a similar effort, as a series of defensive breakdowns led to a 6-4 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen allowed six goals on just 20 shots, but head coach Don Granato did not blame his defacto #1 goaltender for the loss.

"It was a tough one. I think (Ukko) probably would like the first one back." Granato said. "He makes a really nice save (on Brayden Schenn) and then I'm sure he'd like that first goal against back. He's played better, but I don't fault him as the issue tonight."

The Sabres have shown some growth and slight improvement defensively this season after allowing 300 goals last season, but against the Blues, rookie Ryan Johnson was a central figure in defensive errors that resulted in three goals against in just 10:16 of ice time.

"I thought we had possession in the D zone, handed pucks over too easily, which is tough to recover from. When you think you're exiting and you're not, (the Blues) were very opportunistic, but we made the mess of ourselves." Granato said "I felt that there were a couple of guys on the defensive end that just didn't look like themselves. Especially early, especially in the first period, a couple of guys on the back end did not look like themselves. They settled in better after that point, but you get that and generate that quality again, you could run that game again and maybe have a different outcome, and because of that,"

Buffalo will look to get back to .500 when they take on the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh on Saturday before returning home to play the Nashville Predators on Sunday.