Buffalo-Calgary: Flames Incinerate Sabres in Third Period 5-2

In their 10-2 thrashing of Edmonton on Tuesday night, the Buffalo Sabres had one of those games where everything went their way.  The problem with those games is that they don't happen very often.

And tonight against Calgary, the Sabres not only did not get the bounces, they shot themselves in the foot several times as well.  No team (and certainly not Buffalo) is good enough to have three or four players turn in a clunker and expect to win.

You can't have Chris Butler make one giveaway after another even if he's a rookie having to play as the No. 4 defenseman because of injuries.

You can't have Jochen Hecht, one of your veterans, a guy you expect to score in the clutch, miss two wide open nets and fire the puck off the post twice.

You can't have Derek Roy, your leading scorer, give the puck away with 30 seconds left in the second period and the Sabres applying pressure on the power play.

And you really can't have your goalie let two dribblers between his legs, both shot from the side of the net, both shot not hard enough to break a pane of glass.  Yes, Miller did make some great saves.  But you cannot let those two goals through and win.

Amazingly, the Sabres actually were able to overcome many of their early misplays. Down 2-0, they started skating and tied the score 2-2 on a hard working goal by Stafford and a sniper shot by Connolly off a set-up from Vanek.  

For the first several minutes of the third, the Sabres looked like they might get the go-ahead goal.  But Hecht missed his chance.   A few minutes later, Daniel Paille made a beautiful move exploding deep around the Flames defenseman only to be robbed by Calgary's goalie Kiprusoff.

Seven minutes in, Calgary defenseman Adrian Aucoin stole the puck at his blue line and fired it across the ice to Todd Bertuzzi who was driving towards Sabres d-man Toni Lydman at the Sabre blue line.  

Lydman tried to intercept the pass, but when he whiffed and it bounced off the boards, Bertuzzi was by him and in alone on Miller.  Miller went butterfly an instant too soon, and Bertuzzi roofed it for the tie-breaking goal.

And then the floodgates broke.   Calgary scored again on a power play four and a half minutes later and iced the game with a fifth goal less than two minutes later.

The good news is that the Buffalo defense managed another game without an injury although Chris Butler's neck might be sore from watching the Calgary skaters fly by him. More good news is that Marc-Andre Gragnani doesn't look totally lost out there.

But as Butler has shown, it's one thing to ask a rookie to play 11 minutes in limited situations on the third defensive pair and another to need your rookie to play 20 minutes a game playing five-on-five and shorthanded.  There's no place for Butler to hide.

Buffalo now heads to Phoenix with a three-day break before facing the Coyotes.  The recipe for success is simple.

They need to forget about scoring 10 goals at Edmonton and re-commit to their stingy road strategy, with the forwards helping the injury-riddled Buffalo d in their own end.

Clarke Macarthur needs to stop taking stupid offensive zone penalties.

Jochen Hecht needs to stop playing likes he's on Qualudes, show some fire, and bury his chances.

Vanek and Connolly need to keep working together.  Looking at some of the plays they are making, you can't argue with the fact that, when healthy, Connolly is one of the Sabres best players.

And most importantly, the good Ryan Miller, who can be very, very good needs to keep the bad Ryan Miller, who can be very, very bad, from showing up for the rest of the year.