TribLIVE’s daily and weekly email newsletters deliver the news and information you want straight to your inbox.
In every way – be it through record, eye test, or even a graduated cylinder – the Buffalo Sabers are worst team in the NHL.
They have held this designation a few times over the past decade, having failed to qualify for the postseason since 2011.
And considering that they faced the Pittsburgh Penguins at the KeyBank Center on Saturday and missed their captain, top-line center Jack Eichel and talented rookie striker Dylan Cozens due to injuries, the Sabers weren’t difficult Challenge.
« The way the league is built these days, there are so many people with speed and skill who will hurt you, » Letang said via videoconference. « So if you don’t play your A game and play sloppily, any team in the league can hurt you. Even if their record doesn’t show they’re doing well, they’ll make a good effort. They have skill. They have Speed. When you get out there with nothing to lose, sometimes you are the most dangerous.
« We can’t go out there and think about your recording. We have to think about focusing on our game and playing right. »
It took almost 60 minutes, but the Penguins found the right track by beating the Sabers 3-0 to extend their winning streak to the best five games of the season.
After a fairly mild opening of 36 minutes, the Penguins first met at 16 minutes, 37 seconds of the second period, on a power play opportunity.
After a faceoff victory in the left circle of the Sabers by Sidney Crosby, the striker of the Penguins, Letang put the puck down at the left point and made his way to the center. From there, Letang fed a pass to forward Evgeni Malkin in the left circle. Malkin surveyed the offensive zone and shot a pass to the front of the fold, where striker Jake Guentzel diverted the puck onto the net. Goalkeeper Carter Hutton scored the first save, but on the subsequent ricochet Güntzel was able to knock the puck for his 10th goal from the air past Hutton’s blocker, making him the first member of the Penguins to score double-digit goals this season.
Crosby, his 10th at 7:07 pm, and striker Mark Jankowski, his second at 7:44 pm, scored a clean sheet in the third half.
Goalkeeper Casey DeSmith made 24 saves to improve his record to 6-2-0. It was the fifth end of his career.
DeSmith’s most recent shutout game against the Sabers in the same location, almost two years to the day. On March 14, 2019, he made 26 saves in a 5-0 victory.
For the second time in a row, reserve defender Chad Ruhwedel replaced injured defender John Marino.
Before Thursday’s 5-2 win against the Sabers, Ruhwedel was a good scratch for 12 games in a row.
« He plays a vital role for us as seventh defender in the area where he’s the guy with the depth if we need a player to join our lineup, » said coach Mike Sullivan. “He can miss a number of games and come in and be effective. He understands what he is and how he has to play to be effective for us. He kicks extremely hard. What I respect and admire so much about Chad is just its professionalism and daily approach. He’s a really good professional. He is ready. »
Seth Rorabaugh is a contributor to the Tribune Review. You can contact Seth by email at [email protected] or on Twitter.
Support local journalism
and help us keep covering the stories that matter to you and your community.
TribLIVE’s daily and weekly email newsletters get the news and information you need right to your inbox.
We welcome relevant reader comments on our sports stories on TribLIVE.com. Comments on other stories are not available.
You are solely responsible for your comments, and by using TribLive.com you are consenting to ours
Terms of Use.
We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide an essential commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed comments that improve the quality of our news and information.
While most comments are posted when they are topic-related and not abusive, they are moderators Subjective decisions. We will do it as carefully and consistently as possible. Due to the amount of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.
We value thoughtful comments that represent a range of views that express their point of view quickly and politely. We strive to protect discussions from repeated comments by the same or different readers.
We follow the same taste standards as the daily newspaper. A couple of things we won’t tolerate: personal assault, profanity, vulgarity, profanity (including explosives and letters followed by dashes), commercial advertisements, imitations, incoherence, proselytization, and SCREAMING. Don’t add urls to websites.
We don’t edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or in extracts from an article. In this case we can correct spelling and punctuation.
We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we do not want comments to stall with discussions about our policies and we will moderate accordingly.
We love when readers and people cited in articles or blog posts point out factual or highlighting errors and investigate any allegation. But these suggestions should be sent
by email. In order not to distract other readers, we do not post comments suggesting a correction. Instead, corrections are made in a blog post or article.
Ref: https://triblive.com
