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Take Your Whiskey Home: Sabres 9, Blackhawks 3

Well, this is a game best scrubbed from the brain with industrial-strength cleaner.

Posted on by L_B_R
Credit: Mark Konezny-Imagn Images

The Chicago Blackhawks fell 9–3 to the Buffalo Sabres Friday night in what was easily the worst loss of the season. Honestly, just pretend your TV accidentally shut off and never think about this again.

The Sabres opened the scoring at 13:57 of the first. Tage Thompson sent a slick pass to a wide open Josh Doan in front and he tucked it through the backdoor on his second attempt to make it 1-0 Sabres.

Jason Zucker doubled the lead just 82 seconds later. Oliver Moore turned the puck over, then Jack Quinn dropped a no-look backhand pass right onto Zucker’s tape, and he snapped it past Arvid Soderblom’s arm from the left circle to make it 2–0.

Bowen Byram then redirected Alex Tuch’s diagonal cross-ice feed on the power play at 17:33, stretching the lead to 3–0 and capping a three-goal burst in under four minutes. Another Sabres player just left open in close.

The Blackhawks managed to get one back before the first period ended. Tyler Bertuzzi backhanded in a loose puck in front created off a Sam Rinzel shot to cut it to 3–1 with just over a minute left.

Unfortunately, the second period didn’t offer much relief as the Sabres added two very quick goals before the six-minute mark.

First, a complete breakdown by the Blackhawks allowed Ryan McLeod to get — you guessed it — all alone in the slot to send a perfectly placed wrister past Soderblom at 5:42. Then, eight seconds later, Mattias Samuelsson’s point shot pinballed off Louis Crevier and in for a 5–1 lead, thanks in part to a slick setup pass from Zucker below the goal line.

Alex Vlasic got one back for the Blackhawks with 5:15 left in the second, beat a screened Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen from above to right circle to cut it to 5-2 at 14:45.

But the Sabres restored their four-goal lead with 2:29 left in the period when Doan scored short side off the rush from the right circle for his second of the night, putting them back up 6-2.

The Blackhawks cut into it again early in the third, with Bertuzzi tipping a Connor Bedard blast on the power play for his second of the game to make it 6–3 just 24 seconds in.

Unfortunately, this would be the last Blackhawks goal of the game, but the Sabres had a couple more in them.

Thompson put the Sabres up 7-3 a little over a minute later, driving to the net and sliding the puck under Soderblom. The play started atfer Tuck picked off an exit pass attempt by Rinzel in the neutral zone before getting the puck to Thompson.

Quinn added an 8–3 marker at 7:07, roofing a wrister after the Blackhawks lost the board battle in their own zone and allowed the Sabres to quickly move up ice with numbers.

And, finally, Jordan Greenway’s point shot shot hit a few bodies in front before before Jacob Bryson scooped up the rebound and tucked it around Soderblom to make it 9–3 in the final minutes.

Notes

This is one of those games you just toss straight in the trash, because that’s about all the Blackhawks managed to produce on the ice tonight. There isn’t much value in over-analyzing it, either — if we start seeing more of these, then we can dig in. For now, chalk it up to a pile of mistakes, most of them ugly, and move on.

Here’s what coach Jeff Blashill had to say post game:

Okay okay, here’s what he actually said:

That’s the only post-game interview quote I could find and I’m not willing to stay up late seeing if more appear.

Below are some game play clips (shoutout to BHF for doing legit work out there):

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Alex Tuch (BUF) — 4 assists
  2. Jason Zucker (BUF) — 1 goal, 2 assist
  3. Josh Doan (BUF) — 2 goals

What’s Next

The Blackhawks are back home Sunday to host the Colorado Avalanche at 6 p.m.

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