Lindy Ruff attributed a lost lead to a change in approach following a 6-2 loss by the Buffalo Sabres to the Seattle Kraken at KeyBank Center on Saturday.
The Sabres led 2-0 following a dominant first period in which they earned lopsided advantages in 5-on-5 shot attempts (29-2) and scoring chances (8-0), according to Natural Stat Trick.
The Kraken responded with six unanswered goals, the first five of which were scored in a span of 12:38 stretching from the latter part of the second period to early in the third.
"I thought the second period, embarrassing the way we played,” Ruff said. “We had O-zone time, didn’t get to the inside, didn’t get pucks to the net, passed the puck around the perimeter, looked for the pretty play, and eventually it caught up to us. And to give up a goal in the last couple minutes [of the period], unacceptable. Just embarrassing, actually.”
The Sabres entered the game on the heels of consecutive victories, including a 4-0 shutout in Ottawa on Thursday. They carried that momentum into their start against a Kraken team that had lost its last four games, pulling ahead early on a goal from Sam Lafferty and doubling the lead with a power-play goal from Jack Quinn.
Seattle did not get on the board until Ryker Evans pinched down the right side and sent a shot off Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s blocker with 7:12 remaining in the second period. Buffalo came within a minute of carrying the lead into intermission, but Andre Burakovsky was left alone to score the tying goal off a rebound with 47.7 seconds remaining.
The Sabres finished the middle period with an 18-17 advantage in 5-on-5 shot attempts, but captain Rasmus Dahlin echoed his coach in saying they spent too much time on the perimeter of the offensive zone.
“It’s nice being outside – it’s calm, relaxing, but you get nothing from it,” Dahlin said. “So, I mean, I’ve been saying this [a lot], but you can’t be comfortable. That’s it.”
Following an unsuccessful power play by the Sabres to open the third period, the Kraken took control of the game with three goals in a span of 2:18. The first was scored by Oliver Bjorkstrand on a point-blank shot that was initially stopped by Luukkonen but deflected in off the body of defenseman Jacob Bryson.
Kaapo Kakko scored next on a shot from the right faceoff circle, then scored again on a Kraken power play 1:40 later. Brandon Tanev added an empty-net goal with 3:35 remaining.
The Sabres fell to 12-9-5 in games in which they have scored the first goal this season.
“We’ve just got to keep pushing for the next one and we can’t change anything,” alternate captain Dylan Cozens said. “We can’t try to play an easy game and try and go through sticks and try to make plays at the blue line. We’ve just got to keep doing what we did in the first and get it behind them and play the right way and win battles down low and get to the net. Yeah, it’s happened too much where we’ve gotten the lead right away, we’ve had a good start and then we just crumble and give the game away.”
Added Ruff: “It’s believing that, how you got there, you’ve got to continue to play the same way. There’s a discipline to that. Continue to play the same way.”
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