In tight playoff races, these are the types of losses that can haunt a team. The Vancouver Canucks saw a 3-3 tie devolve into a 6-3 loss to the increasingly scrappy Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night.
The overwhelming reaction was that Buffalo players simply worked harder, as the Canucks’ Twitter feed spells out.
“They worked harder than we did,” Daniel Sedin said. “We had it tied in the 3rd and made the mistakes that cost us”
Jannik Hansen rued the Canucks throwing the game away. Shawn Matthias seemed to wonder why the Canucks weren’t firing on all cylinders. Eddie Lack said the Sabres simply wanted it more.
"We're excited about the games we won on this trip, but that doesn't do anything for us tonight. We didn't play hard" - Desjardins #Canucks
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) February 27, 2015
This isn’t a fatal loss for the Canucks, who are still currently above the wild card fray in second place in the Pacific Division. Still, with some tough games coming up and some hungry teams behind them in their division and in the wild card spots, their margin of error takes a big hit in a game many would say they should have won.
It’s another reminder to the rest of the league not to take the Sabres lightly, too.