BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Tage Thompson has gone from hero to (almost) zero for the Buffalo Sabres.
It was Thompson who led the Sabres to their first playoff victory in 14 years when he scored twice to ignite a 4-3 come-from-behind victory over Boston in Game 1 of their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series last month. But Buffalo's top center hasn't scored a goal since and was a downright liability in the Sabres' 5-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Friday night that evened the second-round series at 1.
He struggled to handle the puck, recorded a minus-four and registered just one shot on goal in nearly 19 minutes of ice time. It was his turnover that led to Montreal's fourth goal -- he had the puck but attempted a spin move that put the puck right onto Alexandre Carrier's stick. The Canadiens defensemen took off on a two-on-one that Buffalo's flat-footed defense couldn't stop before Carrier buried a goal behind Alex Lyon to make it 4-1 Montreal early in the third.
Thompson has increasingly appeared like a shadow of the player who led Buffalo in the regular season with 40 goals and 81 points in 81 games. The reason for that decline could be attributed to multiple factors -- but if the 28-year-old is dealing with some sort of injury, he isn't about to admit it.
"I don't think that's any of your business," a terse Thompson said when questioned postgame about a potential ailment.
He did admit there was a disconnect between what he's capable of and what he has shown on the ice lately.
"It's frustrating," Thompson said. "You obviously want to execute plays and impact the game but [I was] just fighting it tonight. Puck bounces every time you try to touch it. Can't get a handle on it. Ends up in the back of your net. Just have to be better. Wasn't from a lack of trying. Everyone's intentions were in the right place. But sometimes frustration sets in, and it snowballs. We didn't really get a handle on it."
And of the decision he made prior to Carrier's goal?
"I just lost my balance," Thompson said. "I was caught between decisions on what I was going to do with the puck and lost my edge and that ended up in the back of our net."
Admittedly, Buffalo's difficulties began far earlier in Game 2.
The Sabres were down almost immediately when Lyon allowed a weak 5-hole goal to Alex Newhook off Montreal's first shot just 1:36 into the first period.
Then Mike Matheson beat a screened Lyon to put Montreal up 2-0 with less than five minutes gone.
Buffalo failed to capitalize on its first-period power play, but Lyon stood tall stoning Cole Caufield's one-on-one scoring chance generated by a Buffalo turnover, and the Sabres' penalty kill managed to hold off the Canadiens on their one attempt of the period.
Still, Buffalo was brutal in the faceoff dot (at just 4-for-12 until the final minutes of the first) which didn't help matters, either. The Sabres couldn't get any momentum going, and that affected all four lines and contributed to a 2-0 deficit going into the second.
"I think just the whole game was just sloppy," Thompson said.
None more that Thompson's top unit, which continued to have little impact as the game wore on. Coach Lindy Ruff shuffled his combinations late in the contest -- looking for a "spark," but to no avail.
He tried to steer the blame away from Thompson specifically.
"I think you get frustrated," Ruff said. "I think [Thompson] was really trying to press and sometimes when you press, it didn't get any better tonight for him, for sure. 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."
The team looked off-kilter Friday. Even when Zach Benson registered Buffalo's only goal midway through the second to make 3-1, it never felt like the Sabres got going in the right direction. Their power play -- after scoring twice in Game 1 -- was 0-for-5 in Game 2, and Lyon -- who hadn't recorded a save percentage below .929 leading up to Friday -- clocked in at .852.
"We're 1-1 right now," Ruff said. "We're pretty well in the same place we were with the last series. And I said before Game 1, this is going to be a very difficult series. They just beat a heck of a team. We need to handle the puck better and put it in the right spot at the right time."
Thompson still ranks top three in ice time for Sabres skaters and must use his opportunities in making a difference moving forward.
"Every good player that I've been around expects a real high level of play out of themselves," Ruff said of Thompson. "All the best players I've been around know how to flush that for the next game. [Thompson's] game probably stood out because of the goals-against, but he's dealt with a lot this year and handled a lot this year -- he won a world championship, he won an Olympic gold, and he helped us get to where we got."
Ruff attempted to emphasize the other positives in Thompson's game that won't show up on the scoresheet, like how he has used his 6-foot-6 frame to advantage in the crease or been a presence in other areas of the ice.
"Sometimes the top goal scorers don't get it done for you [in a playoff series]," Ruff said. "So, you look at the secondary [scorers] and can [those top guys] make a difference by setting teammates up or creating a screen. You look at a couple of goals we scored [against Boston] and if it's not for Tage standing in front of the goaltender, it doesn't happen. It's not just one thing.
"We all agree here -- I'm not defending his game [Friday] because we all agree he has to be better -- but he's been doing it [in the playoffs] in other ways [than just scoring]. Some goal scorers, they don't want to go to the net front. He goes there."
Thompson is prepared to just put this one behind him, with Game 3 on Sunday in Montreal.
"We'll just try to forget about it as quickly as possible," he said. "Get excited for the next game. Try to look at the positives and the situation we're in. I think when you look at the big picture, we're 1-1 going into Montreal. Not a horrible place to be by any means. Same position we were in Boston, and we just got to go do a job in Montreal."
ESPN's Alaina Getzenberg contributed to this report.