Sabres edged by Sharks

After a pair of blowout defeats, the Sabres appeared to play a little better, but still weren’t able to muster a win as they dropped a 3-2 decision to the Sharks on Thursday night.

Jason Pominville recorded a pair of goals, with Jack Eichel and Zemgus Girgensons assisting on both. It is the fourth consecutive game in which the Sabres have a multi-goal scorer.

With less than five minutes remaining in the 3rd, Lehner came up huge with a big save Tomas Hertl. However, the Sabres seemed out of sync with the goaltender pulled at the end.

“You’re not going to beat any goalies if you don’t have anyone in front of the net, I think Martin Jones saw every shot.” – Lehner

Eichel wasn’t pleased with the defeat either.

“A lot of mental errors, we have to figure out a way to be sick of losing, I know I’m sick of losing,” Eichel said. “It’s just little plays that are hurting, it’s not enough. It’s getting old and we have to be better.”

The Sabres started off the game on the wrong foot by taking an early penalty. After some aggressive penalty killing early, the Sharks found a way to break through as Tomas Hertl notched his first goal of the year. It was the first power play goal Buffalo had allowed all season.

Chris Tierney and Timo Meier recorded the other goals for San Jose as they improved to 1-2. That leaves Buffalo and Arizona as the only two winless teams remaining in the league, both at 0-3-1.

The Sabres had a big opportunity during the game with a 5-on-3 power play for 47 seconds. But after gaining momentum, they were unable to capitalize. A little later, sloppy defensive play led to the eventual game-winning goal from Meier.

Jake McCabe, the birthday boy, wasn’t a major positive factor in any way during this game. However, Josh Gorges looked like one of the better defenseman throughout the entirety of the game.

After four games, the Sabres have just three players that have found the back of the net. While the top line is coming through, secondary scoring is absolutely a must in order for this team to move forward and start winning games.

The road doesn’t get any easier as the Sabres will take on the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night. Faceoff is scheduled for 10:30 p.m.