In Buffalo, the Sabres’ scoring woes continued on the season with a 2-1 loss to the visiting Nashville Predators on Sunday night.
Juuse Saros made 34 saves in the win.
“He’s a battler,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. “He’s a [competitor] and he competes on everything — every practice, every shot. And I thought he was really, really sharp tonight. Right from the get-go you could tell he was dialed in. He’s the ultimate team player and he’s the type of kid, he’s going to will himself to play like he did tonight and for the team, too.”
Nashville improved to 12-12-0.
Filip Forsberg scored off a face win in the left circle to give the Predators a 1-0 lead at 9:40.
“I thought we came out ready to play,” Forsberg said. “Obviously they get that goal and turn the momentum maybe a little bit but I thought we defended well, Juuse played great in between the pipes. We obviously should have produced a couple more goals, I think, especially in the first and the second where we had a ton of chances. Their goalie played great, gotta give him credit. But overall pretty good game.”
Just 74 seconds later Yakov Trenin wristed home a shot from the right side to expand the lead to 2-0 for Nashville.
“I felt we were on the forecheck well,” Forsberg said. “They’ve got some guys that like to skate back there and we tried to play physical, run through them and get the puck back and create a couple goals off that. Obviously a nice face-off play on the first goal and a nice shot tip. So that’s all it takes.”
The Sabres dropped to 10-13-2.
“I feel like right now it’s like it’s two different teams out there,” Buffalo center Dylan Cozens said. “We play a completely different way when we’re down and that’s how we need to play right off the bat. We need to play like we’re desperate right off the bat before we get down two goals because it’s tough to come back from that. We’ve been doing that a lot lately, getting down early. We just need to have better starts.”
Victor Olofsson was the lone striker for the Sabres.
He scored midway through the second off a penalty shot to trim the deficit to 2-1.
That was as close as Buffalo would get.
“We had a couple (of chances) early in the first around the front of the net,” Buffalo coach Don Granato said. “I think [Alex] Tuch hit a crossbar, I think, after they scored their first or second. But we didn’t have the energy I think you’re speaking of or the confidence, mojo, swagger, fearlessness, whatever. However you want to describe it. We were hesitant at the start. …
“I felt we at some point needed to snap out of it. And you referenced the penalty shot goal—I think we were a different team after that and needed to be a different team before that.”
The Sabres have lost four of their five matches.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 27 saves in the loss.
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