Can Sabres' Tage Thompson find his game after 'disaster' in Game 2 blowout?

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With 16:31 left in the period, Owen Power passed the puck to Tage Thompson high in the offensive zone. Thompson collected the pass and first looked like he was going to shoot. Then he had second thoughts and pulled back the puck. As he did, he spun himself into the ice and lost the puck at the offensive blue line. Alexandre Carrier grabbed it, skated down the ice and picked a corner on Alex Lyon to put the Canadiens up 4-1. Thompson glided toward the net and then smashed his stick over the post. When the Canadiens got the empty-netter to put the finishing touches on their 5-1 win, it was Thompson who turned over the puck in the neutral zone. “I just wasn’t executing,” Thompson said while sitting at his locker stall after the game. “I think everything I touched turned into a disaster tonight. So, tough one. I’ve got to be better. Just as simple as that. Just flush that one and move on.” Friday morning, Sabres coach Lindy Ruff wasn’t worried about Thompson. When asked about the fact that Thompson hadn’t scored since Game 1 against the Boston Bruins, Ruff pointed to other examples of star players struggling to score in the playoffs and said the important thing is that a player brings something else to the table when the scoring dries up. “The puck isn’t going in the net, then what else?” Ruff said. “What else can you do to help the team?” Thompson was doing that during Buffalo’s Round 1 series against Boston. In Game 6, he had two impressive assists. He set a net-front screen on Mattias Samuelsson’s goal, too. The Sabres outscored the Bruins 7-1 during Thompson’s five-on-five minutes in that series. Friday night, though, Thompson didn’t score and was a disaster in every area of the game. The Sabres had just 14.8 percent of the expected goals during Thompson’s five-on-five minutes, and he finished minus-4. “It’s frustrating. You obviously want to execute plays and impact the game. Just fighting it tonight. You know, 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.” Thompson wasn’t alone Friday night. Most of the Sabres’ top players let the team down. By the end of the second period, the Sabres were getting outchanced 10-2 with Rasmus Dahlin on the ice at five-on-five and 5-0 during Thompson’s and Tuch’s five-on-five minutes. The Sabres’ problems started early. Less than two minutes into the game, Peyton Krebs stumbled and turned the puck over in the defensive zone, leading to Montreal’s first goal. Less than three minutes later, Ryan McLeod lost a defensive-zone faceoff clean and Mike Matheson beat Lyon with a shot from the point that should have been saved. The Canadiens scored their third goal early in the second period on what Dahlin called a bad read by him when he let Alex Newhook skate right by him to the far post. That’s why when Ruff was asked about Thompson after the game, he said he saw Thompson get frustrated and try to press, but then he quickly turned the attention to the rest of the group. “You know what, we’re all in this together,” Ruff said. “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.” For his part, Thompson didn’t shy away from the way he played. It would have been hard to after a game like this one. He now has just one shot on goal in two games in this series after racking up 26 shots on goal during the six games against Boston. He has also won just 32 percent of his faceoffs in the playoffs. Asked point-blank whether he’s dealing with an injury, Thompson said, “I don’t think that’s any of your business.” Unknown injuries are always a potential caveat in hockey, especially in the playoffs. But Thompson is not going to reveal an injury, and he would likely be the first to acknowledge that an injury wouldn’t explain away some of his decisions with the puck Friday night. “He’s such a pro,” Dahlin said. “Everybody can have bad games. I’m sure tomorrow he will come to work and grind and will probably be our best player next game. I’m not worried at all.” During their first-round series against the Bruins, the Sabres had to adjust to the fact that the Bruins were sitting back in the neutral zone and not allowing them much space to operate. In this series against the Canadiens, the Sabres need to recognize that every turnover, every poor puck decision will come back the other way in a hurry. The Canadiens are a fast team capable of creating chances off the rush and finishing those chances. Yes, the Sabres have more time and space to operate in this series. But that doesn’t mean they can afford to be as careless with the puck as they were in Game 2 while looking for the perfect play. “In all likelihood, we’ll probably practice tomorrow,” Ruff said. “Get the legs going. Feel good about puck touches because our touches … how many pucks did we pass, hit a stick and bounce off? We didn’t get them out. Some of it was pretty poor execution on our part.” The Sabres were in this spot before. Their worst game against the Bruins came in Game 2. If they’re going to find a similar response in this series, it needs to start with the best players. “Tomorrow’s a big day,” Dahlin said. “We got some things we got to talk about. This one was unacceptable.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms