SAN JOSE – The Sharks have struggled in the first home game after a lengthy road trip this season, and Friday’s 3-1 defeat extended that trend.
Their struggles against the Sabres, meanwhile, have been going on for, oh, about 25 years now.
For the ninth time in the last 10 games the Sabres downed the Sharks, with San Jose’s lone victory coming earlier this season in Buffalo. The Sharks have never swept the Sabres in a two-game season series, and are just 8-21-6 against them all-time.
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“I don’t know what it is,” said Marc-Edouard Vlasic, San Jose’s lone goal-scorer on Friday.
Buffalo, already way out of the playoff race and missing its leading scorer in Ryan O’Reilly, took advantage of a few fortunate bounces. Trailing 1-0 in the second period, a puck leaped over Brenden Dillon’s stick on a routine pass from partner Roman Polak, resulting in a giveaway to Brian Gionta and a Johan Larsson score.
In the third, Zach Bogosian’s innocent looking wrist shot double-deflected past Martin Jones at 12:36, giving Buffalo a 2-1 lead it would not relinquish.
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Regarding the tying goal, Dillon said: “Bounces off my stick and then perfectly off the boards right back to [Gionta]. Bad luck. We did that regroup probably 10 to 15 times tonight and worked out well on the rest of them.”
Vlasic was annoyed with the ice conditions at SAP Center.
“It just goes to show how bad the ice is here on a nightly basis,” he said.
After completing what they considered a successful five-game road trip in which they grabbed seven of a possible 10 points, the Sharks were looking forward to opening a stretch of 15 of their final 23 at SAP Center. They had gained at least one point in nine straight home games before Friday (6-0-3).
Instead, they dropped to 0-4-1 in the first home game after a road trip of four or more games.
“We haven’t been here in awhile. We were excited,” Joe Pavelski said. “Came out and had a great start, and just was never able to really build on it.”
The Sharks’ only goal came just 1:28 into the game. Matt Nieto’s attempted pass to Nick Spaling ended up on Vlasic’s tape at the point, and the defenseman whizzed it past goalie Chad Johnson, a strong candidate to get moved – perhaps even to the Sharks – before Monday’s trade deadline.
[WATCH: Shot of the Game: Vlasic short side top corner vs Sabres]
Coach Pete DeBoer had Nieto, Spaling and Joel Ward together on the third line, while Patrick Marleau – who now has just one even strength goal in his last 29 games – was moved to the left wing of the Logan Couture line, in a move likely being dissected by trade deadline conspiracy theorists.
It was the first time since Jan. 7 that DeBoer went away from playing Joe Thornton, Couture and Marleau down the middle. Probably not coincidentally, that was also the Sharks’ most recent regulation loss at home.
Of concern to DeBoer was that the Sharks did not earn a power play for the second time in their last four games. In related news, Tommy Wingels, their best player at drawing penalties, remains out with a sprained left shoulder.
While the Sharks didn’t take any penalties, either, DeBoer suggested his team could work a little harder.
“Obviously we’re not attacking enough holes, we’re not creating enough chances. That’s when you draw penalties, when you have the puck and get people in bad positions,” said the coach. “You attack a hole, and someone has to haul you down. We’re not doing enough of that.”
Still, the Sabres played a clean game, and after battling the red-hot Anaheim Ducks to a slim 1-0 defeat on Wednesday, were able to win their fourth game in the last seven (4-2-1).
“They played a really good road game,” DeBoer said. “We had to find a way to get inside, either to score a goal or draw a penalty, and we didn’t do enough of that tonight.”