The Buffalo Sabres came into Thursday night chasing a third straight win, but Dallas shut that idea down fast. The Stars skated off with a 4-0 victory, handing Buffalo its first shutout loss of the season and leaving the Sabres still searching for answers after back-to-back comeback wins over Chicago and Minnesota.
The game stayed within reach early, with Dallas holding just a 1-0 edge after Jason Robertson scored in the first period. But Buffalo never really found its footing offensively, and once the Stars started stacking pressure in the second period, the Sabres couldn’t drag themselves back into the fight.
One of the bigger storylines was the shuffle up front. Lindy Ruff altered his lines before the game, and the biggest change came on the top unit, where Tage Thompson shifted to the wing for the first time this season.
Jiri Kulich took over at center with Peyton Krebs alongside him. Buffalo also had Josh Norris back in the middle on the third line with Ryan McLeod and Konsta Helenius, while Josh Doan started on the fourth line.
By the third period, with the Sabres already down 4-0, Ruff went back to some of the combinations used earlier in the season, moving Thompson back to center with Josh Norris and Josh Doan on his wings. The line of Krebs-Kulich-Thompson, though, had looked strong late in the Minnesota game, so it could get another look against Utah.
The goaltending situation is going to keep drawing attention, too. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped only 14 of 18 shots, and he’s now allowed three or more goals in each of his first three starts. He was solid enough in the opening period aside from Robertson’s one-timer on a 2-on-1 rush, but things unraveled in the second.
Sam Steel beat him on a shot from the blueline that Luukkonen couldn’t handle cleanly, with the puck bouncing off his stick and through his legs. Then Mikko Rantanen got one to go in a sequence that turned unlucky when the puck bounced off the end boards and Luukkonen went to the wrong side. Roope Hintz added the last goal on the power play.
When a team is already having trouble creating offense, it needs its goalie to steal a few moments and stop the bleeding. Buffalo didn’t get that on Thursday.
And then there was the power play, which never gave the Sabres a lift. Buffalo entered the game 0-for-10 and failed to score on any of its three chances against Dallas.
The problem wasn’t only the empty netting - the Sabres weren’t even generating enough pressure to make the chances feel dangerous. In those three opportunities, they managed only four shots on goal and two high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.
There was plenty of optimism that the offseason work on the man advantage would show up early, but after four games, that confidence has taken a hit.
The Sabres are back on the ice Saturday night against the Utah Mammoth, who are coming off a 6-0 loss in Boston.
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Sabres Have A Real Early Chance To Build Something At Home
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There is also some positive momentum building around individual pieces, with the top of the lineup producing and the blue line getting recent contributions that matter in October. The bigger question is whether Buffalo can turn that into a bigger run at home, because a win here would push the club closer to a kind of early-season rhythm it has been chasing and would make this a lot more than just another night on the calendar. [Read more 🡒]