Slow Sabres’ ugly loss to Avalanche the continuation of a troubling trend

There are early deficits, and then there are smoldering craters while fans are still finding their seats.

The Buffalo Sabres once again imploded right after the opening faceoff, surrendering three goals within 12 minutes Wednesday night and failing to get a shot on net until the end of the first period. They barely emitted a whimper in their 5-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena.

For a month and a half, the Sabres have been horrendous at the start of most games. They’ve scored the first goal only six times in their past 21 games and have done so in consecutive games just once since Oct. 29.

But that’s not the worst part. The Sabres aren’t merely giving up an early goal.

Before they have a chance to blink, opponents are administering speed knots. When the Sabres don’t score first, which is 71.4 percent of the time since Halloween, opponents on average score 2.9 goals before the Sabres respond.

The numbers have worsened. Over the past 16 games, Buffalo has scored first five times, including back-to-back against the Chicago Blackhawks and Washington Capitals four weeks ago. In the 11 other games, opponents have averaged 3.3 goals before the Sabres tally their first.

And in none of those 11 games has Buffalo’s first goal even tied the score at 1.

Holes weren’t always this deep. Believe it or not, as the Sabres stumbled out of the gate, they struck first five times in a span of seven October games, and in the other two games, their first goal tied the score.

That stretch included a season-high three straight games with the opening goal against the Ottawa Senators, New Jersey Devils and the Avalanche, who the Sabres trounced 4-0 in KeyBank Center.

The rematch was inversely ugly, the continuation of a troubling trend.

Buffalo is 3-14-2 when allowing the first goal and 1-11-1 when losing after one period.

King Henrik displeased

Hall of Fame goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, working as a studio analyst for the TNT broadcast, sounded borderline offended by what he saw from the Sabres through 20 minutes.

“It’s been disappointing a little bit,” Lundqvist said during the first intermission. “Buffalo last year took such a big step in the right direction. To me, going through a rebuild, the biggest challenge is accountability because you have growing pain. You will allow players to make a lot of mistakes and still put them on the ice.

“On winning teams, you won’t allow that. If you’re a veteran team in the NHL, if you keep making the same mistakes, you won’t be playing, simple as that. … Buffalo is not in a rebuild anymore, but they’re playing like they’re in a rebuild because they’re allowing these types of mistakes in their own end too often.

“They have a pretty good team, but they’re beating themselves with how they choose to pass the puck, take chances. For them to take the next step and make the playoffs, they need to start playing winning hockey and have accountability in every play. That’s what you see from great teams, accountability, the biggest thing.”

Sabres shot barrage in second period

While Lundqvist was pontificating, something good seemed to transpire in the Sabres dressing room — although it didn’t help on the scoreboard.

Buffalo scored on its second shot when rookie Zach Benson converted a Rasmus Dahlin rebound with 1:22 left in the first period.

The Sabres from there rattled 17 uninterrupted shots (the broadcast noted they reached 19 straight shots, but the NHL later adjusted the official number) and finished the second period with a 15-5 margin.

Buffalo couldn’t maintain the barrage. Colorado tacked on goals 2:40 into the third period and with 6:49 remaining.

Roster addition

Adding to the aggravation was a performance that belied the Sabres’ recent three-game point streak in which fans were hopeful some problems finally had been solved. The Sabres beat the Boston Bruins in TD Garden, lost to the Montreal Canadiens in a shootout and defeated the Arizona Coyotes prior to Wednesday.

The Sabres went to Denver in search of consecutive wins for only the second time all season and got slapped back down despite the returns of winger Alex Tuch (who missed four games with a lower-body injury), defenseman Mattias Samuelsson (one game with an undisclosed injury) and goaltender Ukko Pekka-Luukkonen (three games with an illness).

Tuch and linemate Tage Thompson created a couple chances in the second period, but couldn’t cash them. One of Tuch’s shots hit the post. He skated for 19:01 and recorded three shots.

Samuelsson was terrific in Boston, amassing nine blocks and five hits. He was quieter against Montreal and missed the victory over Arizona. He was back to his usual workload Wednesday, logging 20:51 of ice with three blocks and a hit.

Roster subtraction

Buffalo, apparently, is legally prohibited from having a fully healthy roster.

Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon detonated Jeff Skinner with a clean hit that dropped the Sabres winger onto his rump, with his back and head hitting the boards in the second period.

Skinner skated one more shift and then left the game for good with an upper-body injury. Skinner is tied for the team lead with 12 goals and tied for second with 22 points.

Homecoming

You have to wonder if Sabres coach Don Granato and general manager Kevyn Adams have held some difficult decisions about whether defenseman Erik Johnson should get some time off.

Johnson began his Wednesday overwhelmed and finished it overwhelmed.

After the morning skate, he wept so hard at his locker stall that he needed to sit down and compose himself before speaking with reporters about his first game back in Colorado. During the first period, the Avalanche showed a Johnson appreciation video on the arena scoreboard. TNT arranged several spots on the homecoming storyline, with rinkside reporter Darren Pang interviewing him and Avalanche coach Jared Bednar during the game.

While much of his value can’t be found on a stat sheet — leadership, wisdom, character — he was on the ice for Colorado’s first and third goals. On the latter, defenseman Sam Malinski poked the puck away from him in the Sabres zone and turned it into a two-on-one goal for Buffalo native Miles Wood to make it 3-0 with the game just 11:55 old.

Johnson will be 36 in March. He needs 51 more games to reach the magical 1,000 mark, and Buffalo has 52 remaining.

(Top photo: Michael Martin / NHLI via Getty Images)