This is a night the Buffalo Sabres likely wish never happened. The fact that they suffered a crushing 5-1 defeat to the Colorado Avalanche was only the beginning.
Buffalo also lost forward Patrick Kaleta and defenseman Tyler Myers to injuries, per the Sabres’ Twitter feed. Coming into this contest, Myers was averaging 25:45 minutes per contest and that had climbed to an average of 27:51 minutes in December. For a team trying to dig itself out of a rather deep hole, missing a player of Myers’ importance for any extended period of time could prove to be devastating.
A month ago, this night would have just been another in a long line of disappointments for the Sabres, but after starting the season with a 3-13-2 stretch, Buffalo went on to win 10 of its next 13 games. That momentum might be dead after though after the Sabres suffered decisive losses to Winnipeg and now Colorado. Tomorrow’s game against Boston will be a big test for them.
Speaking of tests, 22-year-old goaltender Calvin Pickard passed another one as he guided the Avalanche by stopping 28 of 29 shots. He’s been dominant in place of Semyon Varlamov (groin) and while Pickard is expected to return to the minors once Varlamov is healthy, he isn’t making the decision easy for coach Patrick Roy.
Colorado is on a 2-0-2 run going into tomorrow’s game against Detroit.