Already eliminated from playoff contention, the Buffalo Sabres will wrap up their season on Monday night when they take on the host Tampa Bay Lightning.
Even though it has been a disappointing campaign for Buffalo (38-37-6, 82 points), the Sabres have fared well against Tampa Bay, winning two of the three meetings between the teams this season.
Both of Buffalo’s victories came in overtime, with Dylan Cozens providing the game-winner on Oct. 17 and Rasmus Dahlin coming through in the clutch on Feb. 29.
In between those wins, the Lightning (44-28-8, 96 points) downed the Sabres 3-1 on Jan. 20. Tampa Bay’s Nicholas Paul and Tyler Motte scored 52 seconds apart during the first period to provide all the offense the Lightning would need to salvage at least one victory in the season series.
Buffalo is closing its season with a two-game road trip in Florida, most recently falling 3-2 in overtime to the Panthers on Saturday. Goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was sharp, stopping 39 shots, but he let Sam Reinhart beat him in the extra period.
It was the Sabres’ third loss in four games.
“You could tell our guys weren’t as sharp,” Buffalo coach Don Granato said. “As a consequence, they weren’t as sharp with the puck and they had to defend a little bit more, but they defended hard. And that’s the key. The moments we needed to defend, they defended hard.
“They limited second chances and second opportunities or pushed pucks to the outside a little bit more and contested pucks around the net better. Obviously that enabled us, with some good play by (Luukkonen), to weather a few storms.”
In the preseason, many considered the Sabres to potentially be a playoff-bound team. Instead, Buffalo missed the postseason for the 13th straight year, joining another New York team, the NFL’s Jets, as the franchises with the longest active playoff droughts in American professional sports.
But the 25-year-old Luukkonen appears to be the right goalie to build a club around. In 54 games this season, Luukkonen is 27-22-4 with a 2.57 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage.
With two games remaining on its regular-season schedule, Tampa Bay is locked into the No. 1 wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Lightning coach Jon Cooper’s team cannot catch the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are in third place in the Atlantic Division, nor can any club below Tampa Bay seize the top wild card.
Cooper said the Washington Capitals, 4-2 winners over the Lightning on Saturday, had much more to play for but that was no excuse for his squad’s sloppy play.
“(The Capitals) are on a different emotional level than we are,” Cooper said. “But in the end, there were 20 minutes to play, and the game was tied. So dig in here for a bit.
“We just made some mental errors. One was on the penalty and then the fourth goal. You can’t make the plays we made in the D-zone and allow that kind of stuff to happen. Those are easy ones. That was the disappointing part. You just have to play this out for 20 minutes and the penalties bit us in the butt.”
Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel and Anthony Duclair scored their 25th and 23rd goals of the season, respectively, on Saturday. Duclair has notched seven goals in 15 games since being acquired from the San Jose Sharks.
–Field Level Media
