3 Sabres most to blame for heartbreaking 2nd-round loss vs. Canadiens

The road team won the final four games of this series, including Monday night, as the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Buffalo Sabres in Game 7. Alex Newhook was a star for the Canadiens all series long, and he scored his second Game 7 overtime winner of the playoffs to send his team to the Eastern Conference Final.

It was an unfortunate end for the Sabres, who dominated the Canadiens for most of the game but couldn’t get the final goal past Jakub Dobes. Buffalo had their chances to do it, but an early whistle in regulation that took the go-ahead goal away from them and a couple of goalmouth scrambles that didn’t cross the line ended their chances.

The Sabres gave it their best effort, but at the end of the day, their season ended with two consistent problems during their second-round series: the inability to get a save from their goaltenders and a star forward who didn’t show up when their team needed them the most.

Alex Tuch’s pending UFA status took a massive hit

Alex Tuch wants a contract in the Adrian Kempe range when he hits the market on July 1. The belief was that he wouldn’t even get a chance to hit the market if the Sabres ponied up and gave him a contract extension, but it doesn’t seem like they are willing to meet his $10+ million asking price. After his abysmal showing in the second round, it’d be hard for Buffalo to justify making him one of the highest-paid wingers in the league.

One of the highest-paid wingers in the league would find a way to get at least one point in a series where the Sabres scored 23 goals. While Tuch was playing with the team’s best players for much of the series, he couldn’t manage to record even a secondary assist that bounced off him and ended up on the right stick. It was hard to believe after seeing him dominate the Boston Bruins for large portions of the second round.

It wasn’t just Tuch’s offensive output that lacked. He wasn’t using his speed, which makes him so dangerous, and his physicality was minimal. When the Sabres release the usual laundry list of injuries that a playoff team releases after they are done, no one will be too surprised if Tuch is on there with some serious ailment.

Tage Thompson is another star who could take some heat for his play this season, but three games in which he totaled three goals and five assists will take him off the hook much more easily than Tuch. However, if you look at some of his turnovers and costly penalties in the four games where he was held scoreless, Thompson does deserve some of the ridicule.

Sabres’ goaltending crumbled in the season’s biggest moment

As one of the most legendary hockey coaches of all time, Toe Blake once said, “If you have two goalies, you don’t have one.” In this day and age, a two-goalie tandem is very important for keeping the goaltenders healthy, which is why the saying has since changed to three goalies, and that was the problem for the Sabres.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Alex Lyon, and Colten Ellis carried the water for Buffalo at different times during the season. While having three goalies you trust is a rare thing for head coach Lindy Ruff, the problem for all of them was always that you didn’t really know if they could trust either in the playoffs.

Lyon was a force for Buffalo during the first round against the Bruins after taking over for Luukkonen. Still, Lyon is notorious for giving a team a couple of good weeks before falling back into his backup form. He won Game 1 against the Canadiens, but allowed nine goals in Games 2 and 3, didn’t come back until late in Game 5 when Luukkonen faltered, and then allowed three goals on four shots in Game 6.

Luukkonen held on for the win in Game 6 in relief, but it left everyone skeptical that he could do it again in Game 7.

The Finnish goaltender made some massive stops for the Sabres in Game 7, but the problem for him will always be his propensity to give up a backbreaking weak one that leaves everyone wondering how it got in. Game 5 at home was full of those goals, and Newhook’s overtime winner is one he’ll want to have back.

For the Sabres, despite all the issues, they were one goal short of advancing, which is something to build on for the league’s third-youngest team.

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