The demise of the Buffalo Sabres was inevitable it seems. The Sabres broke out of the gates this season with a shiny new roster and a new head coach.
On Tuesday, the Sabres fell back to .500 hockey at 17-17-7 with a 6-4 loss to the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning. 
The Sabres held a 4-1 lead in the middle frame and let it slip away in a metaphor for the season thus far.
Alex Killorn potted two goals for the Lightning in the win.
“I think just emotionally we weren’t really in the game for some reason,” Killorn said. “It seems like we’ve had really bad starts. … We ended up getting a goal at the end of the period. It gives us a little bit of hope, and third period we really took over.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 24 saves to get the win.
Jack Eichel, Conor Sheary, Marcus Johansson, and Jimmy Vesey were the Sabres’ rattlers.
“We never expected the game to be over at 4-1, but you sure expected to have a much more controlled situation,” Sabres head coach Ralph Krueger said. “When we do get into these penalty, power play, specialty team situations, they seem to break our 5-on-5 momentum, and we need to stop changing our 5-on-5 game due to the feelings on the specialty teams.
“It was a change in momentum against a very dangerous team, but we are to blame. We gave them more than they actually took.”
Tyler Johnson, Kevin Shattenkirk and Ondrej Palat had single markers for the Bolts.
“[Killorn] gets us one, but I thought the big goal was Johnson’s,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “It’s a big difference coming back into the room one down instead of two. When you’re one down, you’re feeling you’re close. It was a big effort to come back.”
Anthony Cirelli added an empty-net goal to seal the win.
[WATCH: All Lightning vs. Sabres highlights]
Linus Ullmark made 21 saves in the loss.
We were playing well, obviously a 4-1 lead, we have momentum and then we [throw] the game away,” Eichel said.
You must be logged in to post a comment.