Empty Thoughts: Sabres 4, Penguins 2

Observations from the Penguins’ 4-2 loss to the Sabres:

From the Penguins’ perspective, there really weren’t many positives to take from this. In fact, the list of good could be limited to:

1.) No one got hurt.

2.) Cody Ceci continued to play well.

And that’s about it.

Let’s stick with Ceci. He recorded a secondary assist on a goal late in regulation. That gave him points in eight of his past 11 games (one goal, seven assists).

The veteran defenseman looks light years better than the player who was a healthy scratch for three of the first four games of the season.

When the Penguins signed him to a one-year deal worth a tidy $1.25 million in October, the acquisition was largely panned. Ceci was coming off a rough 2019-20 season with the Toronto Maple Leafs and had some rough possession metrics. The notion of the Penguins using their limited salary cap space to sign Ceci was revolting to many critics.

Yet, six months later, he might be their most consistent defenseman, with the exception of Brian Dumoulin.

“We felt Cody was a solid two-way defenseman,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “He’s shown that through his body of work in his time here. He’s got (538) games under his belt. He’s established himself as a real solid two-way defenseman. He started that (as a member of the Ottawa Senators) and obviously continued on in Toronto. We felt that if in some new surroundings and new environment, that Cody would be a real solid serviceable defenseman for us. We were looking for that right-shot defenseman that we could add to our group we thought we could help us create the balance we’re looking for and be that two-way defenseman. Not just someone that defends but someone that could help us offensively with outlet passes or joining the rush or jumping off the offensive blue line or things of that sort.

“Cody’s shown a capacity to do that in his body of work here in the NHL. He’s killing penalties and that’s something that we knew he was going to be good at. And he’s defending hard for us as well. But we’ve really liked how he’s fit into our group.”

What happened

Buffalo took a lead only 26 seconds into regulation on the game’s first shot. With Penguins defenseman Kris Letang pinching in deep on the right wing, Sabres forward Dylan Cozens generated a two-on-one rush with forward Arttu Ruotsalainen against Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin. Gaining the Penguins’ zone on the left wing, Cozens fed a pass to the right circle for Ruotsailainen who swiped a one-timer past the glove of outstretched goaltender Casey DeSmith on the near side for his second goal. Cozens and defenseman Rasmus Dahlin collected assists.

It became a 2-0 game 2:18 into the second period. After a defensive zone turnover by Penguins forward Evan Rodrigues, Sabres forward Victor Olofsson fed a pass from the left point across the ice to forward Sam Reinhart. Using Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson as a screen, Reinhart snapped a wrister from the right circle past DeSmith’s blocker on the far side. Olofsson netted the lone assist.

The Sabres secured victory with a power-play goal at 8:02 of the third period. After Olofsson gained the offensive zone on the left wing, he fed another cross-ice pass to the right circle for Reinhart. Using Penguins defenseman John Marino as a screen, Reinhart sniped a wrister over the glove hand of DeSmith on the near side. Olofsson and Dahlin had assists.

The Penguins got on the scoreboard at 10:18 of the third period thanks to forward Jason Zucker scoring his seventh goal. After Penguins forward Jeff Carter beat Sabres forward Casey Mittelstadt on a faceoff in Buffalo’s left circle, Zucker jumped on the puck and fired an immediate wrister through Tokarski’s five hole. Carter and forward Jared McCann netted assists.

An empty net goal by Sabres forward Rasmus Asplund, his sixth, at 18:12 of the third put Buffalo up 4-1. The lone assist went to Mittelstadt.

A late goal by Penguins forward Teddy Blueger, his fifth, at 19:36 of the third period, capped the scoring. After Rodrigues won a puck battle in his own left corner, he backhanded a pass up ice for Blueger. Generating a three-on-three rush, Blueger gained the offensive zone on the right wing and fired a wrister from the half wall that beat Tokarski’s blocker on the far side. Assists were tallied by Rodrigues and Ceci.

Statistically speaking

• The Penguins led in shots, 36-29.

• Dahlin led the game with eight shots.

• Forwards Bryan Rust, Jake Guentzel, Carter, Zucker and Letang each led the Penguins with four shots.

• Letang led the game with 23:35 of ice time on 28 shifts.

• Dahlin led the Sabres with 23:12 of ice time on 23 shifts.

• The Sabres controlled faceoffs, 33-29 (54%).

• Mittelstadt was 15 for 21 (71%).

• Penguins forward Sidney Crosby was 13 for 24 (54%).

• Carter, Penguins forward Zach Aston-Reese, Sabres defensemen Jacob Bryson, Henri Jokiharju, Rasmus Ristolainen and Reinhart each led the game with two blocked shots.

• DeSmith made 25 saves on 28 shots.

• Tokarski made 34 saves on 36 shots.

Randomly speaking

• This was an odd game. Mainly because the Sabres never really seemed to be overwhelmed, as has been the case for most of their season. But once they got an early lead, they kind of played this game at their pace. Sure, they gave up tons of shots, but most of them were from the perimeter with little in the way of screens. And very few of them were off of second-chance opportunities such as rebounds. The Penguins just seemed to be off most of the day.

• There were a handful of wonderful chances for the Penguins. But in many cases, they had some unforced errors. Midway through the second period, Zucker botched a two-on-one sequence by forcing a bad pass instead of shooting. Also in the second period, Crosby had an easy tap in from the left side of the cage but forced a quick shot that went between the cage and Tokarski’s backside. A goal on either of those scenarios and this is a different game.

• The penalty kill continues to struggle as it allowed the game-winning goal to Reinhart. This has been an area of concern all season long.

• The Penguins did not help themselves by taking four penalties.

• Pettersson struggled a bit. In addition to being used as a screen on Reinhart’s first goal, he took a penalty that led to Reinhart’s second goal and just looked bad on a sequence in the first period where Dahlin danced around him for a quality shot against.

• McCann has 13 points (seven goals, six assists) in his past 13 games.

• There was a fun moment at 13:26 of the second period where Crosby (5-foot-11, 200 pounds) went all Darius Kasparaitis and dropped the massive Ristolainen (6-foot-4, 221 pounds) with a hip check in the neutral zone.

• DeSmith was adequate, which is an upgrade over his previous appearances. He stopped most of the shots he should have. None of the three goals he allowed were weak but he could have stolen one of them.

Regardless, DeSmith’s game has been trending downward as of late. In the past four games, DeSmith has a 1-3-0 record, a 4.70 goals against average and an .828 save percentage.

• Tokarski just looked to be really tuned in during this game. He was square to seemingly every shot he faced and rarely seemed to allow rebounds.

Historically speaking

• Carter recorded his first point as a member of the Penguins.

• Before Ruotsailainen’s goal, DeSmith had a shutout sequence of 180:18 against the Sabres that had dated to the 2018-19 season. Before Sunday, the Sabres’ last goal against DeSmith was an overtime score by forward Jack Eichel in a 5-4 win at PPG Paints Arena, Nov. 19, 2018.

• Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson made his NHL debut after being recalled from Rochester of the American Hockey League prior to the game. A second-round pick (No. 32 overall) in 2018, he is the son of former Penguins defenseman Kjell Samuelsson. On 19 shifts, he logged 13:12 of ice time and had one shot off of one attempt.

Publicly speaking

• Blueger didn’t like the timing of this performance:

“Maybe a little bit cause for concern in the sense that this time of year, we can’t afford to come out flat like that. We were second to loose pucks, losing a lot of puck battles. That kind of cost us. This time of year with about 10 games left and the playoff race the way it is, we’ve just got to come out with more urgency.”

• Sullivan offered a frank assessment of Zucker:

“We’re hopeful that (Zucker) can have more of an impact on the game. I’m hopeful that the goal he gets (Sunday) will give him a boost of confidence. He’s an important player for us. He’s such a hard player to play against, he’s got an edge to him, he’s got a physical presence to him. I’ve had a few discussions with him recently just about simplifying his game and going to the net and being hard on pucks and things of that sort. His game has been a little bit up and down most recently. But the last few games, I think playing with Jeff, I think he’s played well. So we’re hoping it’s trending the right way.”

• Blueger on the penalty kill struggling:

“If you look at our stats throughout the course of the year, we’re kind of in the bottom half of the league. That’s not great. That’s something that we felt like for the large part throughout the second half (of the season) was heading in the right direction. We’ve just got to kind of stay on it. As soon as we loosen up a little or lose a little bit of concentration against any team in this league, you’re going to get punished. We’ve got to figure it out.”

• The chance to make his debut against the Penguins was significant to Samuelsson:

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool. My mom’s from Pittsburgh, her whole side of the family still lives there. My dad won a (Stanley Cup title in 1992). So there’s definitely some history with the Penguins and, yeah, it’s pretty cool it’s in the first game.”

Visually speaking

• Game summary.

• Event summary.

• Highlights:

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