BUFFALO – Almost four minutes into Friday’s third period, with the Sabres trailing 3-1 and furiously trying to score, center Tage Thompson grabbed the puck inside the Montreal blue line and lost his balance as he began stickhandling.
As Thompson fell and spun around, Canadiens defenseman Alexandre Carrier snagged the loose puck and zoomed down the ice on a two-on-one, beating Sabres goalie Alex Lyon from the left circle.
“Just fighting it tonight,” Thompson said after the Canadiens throttled the Sabres 5-1, evening the best-of-seven second-round series 1-1. “The puck bounces every time I try to touch it, just can’t get a handle on it, and it ends up in the back of your net. Just got to be better.”
In addition to his gaffe and compiling a wretched minus-4 rating in Game 2, Thompson’s goal drought hit a season-long seven games. He hasn’t scored since a two-goal outburst late in the Sabres’ first game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
As the Sabres’ leading scorer and offensive catalyst, the spotlight shines brightest on Thompson. That’s fair. But 18 other Sabres contributed to a miserable night in KeyBank Center.
“He was really trying to press and sometimes when you press, it didn’t get any better tonight for him, for sure,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said of Thompson. “You know what, we’re all in this together. It’s not about one guy. He knows he needs to be better. We have a lot of guys that know that their game has to be better.”
Fresh off Wednesday’s 4-2 win, the Sabres knew the Canadiens, who just knocked off the Tampa Bay Lightning in a tight seven-game series, would have a strong response.
They roared out of the gate, getting goals from Alex Newhook at 1:36 and Mike Matheson at 4:47 to take the capacity crowd of 19,070 fans out of the game.
“Awful game,” Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin said. “Not acceptable.”
Throughout the night, the Canadiens capitalized on the Sabres’ sloppy play with the puck.
“Three or four of the goals were just the result of bad puck play,” said Ruff, who did not like the way the Sabres handled the puck in Game 1. “You can’t beat yourself. We beat ourselves, and we know we have to be better.”
It’s common for stars to struggle to score in the postseason. There’s so much attention paid to them, they must find other ways to contribute as teammates pick up some of the scoring slack.
On the other side, Montreal winger Cole Caufield, who scored 51 times in the regular season, has mustered just one goal in playoff outings. His linemate, Juraj Slafkovsky, a 30-goal scorer, hasn’t scored since his hat trick in Game 1 against the Lightning.
Thompson, Ruff pointed out again after the game, has found other ways to make an impact.
“I said this morning, sometimes the top goal scorers don’t get it done for you,” he said. “… You make a difference by setting teammates up or screening (the goalie). If you look at the couple of the goals (in the first round), we don’t score them if it isn’t Tage standing in front of the goaltender.
“I mean, that’s some of the stuff you don’t notice. You start just focusing in on one thing. … I’m not defending his game tonight. We all agree he needs to be better. But there’s other things you can do, and he was doing it.”
Thompson, who has recorded seven points in the playoffs, could be nursing an injury that’s making it difficult to handle the puck. Ruff has been utilizing him less in the faceoff dot.
When he was asked following the game if he was playing with an injury, Thompson replied, “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”
Ruff said the Sabres, who haven’t been skating the day after games, will likely practice today.
Expect some changes for Game 3 on Sunday in Montreal. Ruff switched some of his lines late in the contest. He also has plenty of extra players he can utilize, most notably center Sam Carrick, if he wants to freshen up his lineup.
“It’s finding those opportunities inside of a game to make a difference, and sometimes it is putting another player with a couple other guys, and it gives them a little bit of spark, a little bit of newness,” Ruff said.
Winger Zach Benson scored the Sabres’ only goal late in second period. Newhook scored again in the second period and Nick Suzuki added an empty-net goal.
Lyon, who allowed just seven goals in his first six games this postseason, made 23 saves.
Montreal goalie Jakub Dobes stopped 29 shots.
