Carolina Hurricanes have ‘unacceptable’ effort in 4-2 road loss to the Buffalo Sabres
The Carolina Hurricanes’ Nino Niederreiter and Jesper Fast were upset Tuesday after a 4-2 road loss to the Buffalo Sabres.
To which Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said, “It’s a little late now.”
Niederreiter and Fast each scored for the Canes. But with a chance to secure a playoff berth with a victory, the Canes let an early lead slip away, were outplayed much of the night by the Sabres at KeyBank Center and had veteran goalie Craig Anderson make 32 saves in being named the game’s first star.
“That game was unacceptable, the way we played,” said Niederreiter, who assisted on Fast’s goal in the first period for a 1-0 lead. “We just never really found our game until the last period.
“There’s no easy wins, no easy teams to play against. They played hard. We just took that game for granted and thought it was going to be an easy game, and that sure wasn’t the case. We came out flat and thought it would be a fairly easy game because they’re a team that has nothing to lose, I guess, and those are tough games to play.”
Had the Canes (45-17-8) won, and with the New York Islanders losing in regulation at Dallas, the Canes would have qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs for a fourth straight year under Brind’Amour. They also would have maintained their four-point lead over the New York Rangers in the Metropolitan Division.
Instead, the Canes will have to wait on the playoffs and had their divisional lead cut in half as the Rangers beat the New Jersey Devils. They weren’t sharp in any area Tuesday, often allowing goalie Frederik Andersen to fend for himself against unchecked shooters, although defenseman Jaccob Slavin did dive into the crease to prevent a goal in the second.
Jeff Skinner, who likes to try and torment his former team, scored his 29th of the season for the Sabres (26-34-11) and Victor Olofsson had a goal and assist. Casey Middelstadt scored in the second period and Dylan Cozens had a power-play goal -- the sixth power-play score allowed by Carolina’s penalty killers in the last six games.
“If we have some bad habits creeping in toward the playoffs it’s tough to regroup afterwards once you’re in,” Niederreiter said. “That’s exactly what the problem is right now. We’re playing teams that aren’t in the hunt anymore and they play a different kind of hockey. For us, we have to find a way to stick with it and make sure bad habits aren’t getting in.”
The Canes had a strong start to the third period, tying the score 2-2 at 4:10 when Jordan Staal found Niederreiter open in the low slot for his 22nd of the season. Staal, who also assisted on Fast’s goal, now has 601 career points and his line easily was the most effective as Brind’Amour shuffled the other lines during the game.
“We played just a terrible second period and then you leave it up to chance,” Brind’Amour said. “We played a good third and came out hard but it was too late. We got what we deserved.”
The Canes, who had a new road look with black pants and gloves, continued to push in the third until a sequence when they failed a few times to clear their zone. Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin made a nice play to keep the puck in at the blue line and found Olofsson unchecked against Andersen for the go-ahead goal with 7:52 left in regulation.
The Canes’ momentum evaporated and Cozens scored on the power play three minutes later.
“There’s no excuse,” Fast said. “We talked about playing the right way before the game and we didn’t do that at all. They were all over us the first two periods and we didn’t play good at all.
“We have 12 more games to go and we have to make sure we have good habits going into every game and play the right way. It’s like not you can just push a button and you’re ready to go. Every game you’ve got to be ready.”
The Canes will get their next chance to play the “right way” Thursday. Their opponent: the Sabres again, at PNC Arena.
“It’s nice to get another crack at it,” Brind’Amour said. “It’s less about the opponent and more about us trying to regain that game we want to play, that 60-minute game.”
This story was originally published April 5, 2022 at 9:44 PM.
