How we doin’, Sabres fans?
(You don’t have to answer that honestly)
First of all — if you stayed up like me to watch the entirety of that game Wednesday night… I’m sorry.
We could talk at nauseam about the delayed start, the details of the game, or the Sabres shooting themselves in the foot in the first period again.
But I don’t want to put you through that.
The fact of the matter is… It’s now mid-December and they continue to fall behind in a crowded Eastern Conference playoff race.
They’ve won back-to-back games just once this season, and things are looking bleak.
With that being said…. Let’s dive into some headlines:
By the Numbers
Record: 12-15-3 (27 points) | Division: 7th | League: 24th
Power Play: 13.64% (26th in the NHL)
Penalty Kill: 81.05% (13th in the NHL)
5v5 Expected Goals-For Percentage (xGF%): 49.06% (20th in the NHL)
5v5 Goals-For Percentage (GF%): 48.46% (22nd in the NHL)
Jeff Skinner headed to IR
The story heading into the week: The Sabres are finally getting healthy.
Tage Thompson is back.
Alex Tuch is back.
Mattias Samuelsson is back.
Jack Quinn is close to returning.
Jordan Greenway is close to returning.
Unfortunately, that didn’t last long.
After taking a vicious hit from Nathan MacKinnon in Wednesday’s game, Skinner left the bench, briefly returned, and then left the bench again, ultimately being ruled out of the game with an upper-body injury.
Today, the Sabres announced Skinner has been placed on IR.
Their 3rd top-line forward to touch the injured-reserved list this season.
Words from a King
Hall of Fame goaltender Henrik Lundqvist didn’t mince his words when describing the Sabres’ play on last night’s TNT broadcast:
“They’re not in a rebuild anymore, but they’re playing like they’re in a rebuild… They’re allowing these types of mistakes in their own end too often. They have a pretty good team, but they’re beating themselves with how they choose to pass the puck, take chances… For them to take the next step and make the playoffs, they need to start playing winning hockey and have accountability in every play. That’s what you see from great teams around the league: accountability.”
Talk about hitting the nail on the head.
Sure, injuries have hurt this team.
Sure, they’re the youngest team in the league.
But the expectations heading into this season were fairly justified.
They missed the playoffs by one point last season, and the players they’ve identified to ‘drive the bus’ are no longer on rookie contracts.
Jeff Skinner is 31.
Alex Tuch is 27.
Tage Thompson is 26.
Rasmus Dahlin is 23.
Dylan Cozens is 22.
If you asked anyone heading into this season, just barely missing the playoffs again would be a disappointment.
But this? This has been a disaster.
They now need 64 points in their remaining 52 games just to tie their point total from last year.
Some may argue they expected another playoff-less season after the lack of offseason moves and accounting for regression. But could anyone have imagined they would be this bad, and in this deep of a hole, just three months in?
Where Do We Get One of These?
The St. Louis Blues announced on Wednesday that they’ve hired former NHL All-Star Brad Richards as a “Power Play Consultant.”
Anyone know another hockey team in Blue & Gold that might be able to use one of those?
Well here’s how Blues GM Doug Armstrong described the position:
"He'll wake up in the morning and see our power-play clips. With some clips he'll talk to [assistant coach] Steve Ott, who runs our power play, about what they're seeing. Sometimes you can't see the forest from the trees and I'm hoping Brad can bring another perspective. It's just another avenue and voice from the outside"
The Blues currently rank 31st in the NHL in PP% at 8.43%.
Not a whole lot worse than the Sabres power play, ranked 26th, at 13.64%.
The difference is: the Blues don’t have weapons like Rasmus Dahlin or Tage Thompson on their man-advantage.
So while the Sabres are incrementally better on paper, it doesn’t do justice just how disappointing the Sabres top unit has been this year, as anyone who’s been regularly watching knows.
The Sabres’ power play lacks energy, creativity, and ultimately ways to get their most dynamic players the puck in scoring positions that the power play should present.
Before going full-rogue and firing someone like assistant coach Matt Ellis, maybe the Sabres can look for outside help to improve their power play like the Blues have.
It surely can’t hurt.
Savoie & Ratzlaff to Represent Canada
The New Year is approaching, which means World Junior season is upon us.
While they won’t have Zach Benson like they had hoped, Team Canada has announced their roster for the 2024 World Junior tournament and two Sabres prospects made the cut:
Matt Savoie (2022, 1st round)
Scott Ratzlaff (2023, 5th round)
While we await the final rosters from the remainder of the teams, here are some other Sabres prospects we’re expecting to suit up for their countries in Sweden:
Jiri Kulich (2022, 1st round) — (Czechia)
Maxim Strbak (2023, 2nd round) — (Slovakia)
Noah Ostlund (2022, 1st round) — (Sweden)
Anton Wahlberg (2023, 2nd round) — (Sweden)
Keep your eyes peeled for our full World Junior Preview in the next couple weeks!
Next Up
A meeting with the Stanley Cup Champs…
The Sabres take on Jack Eichel and the Vegas Golden Knights, Friday at 10 EST.
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I don’t think it’s too late, but, they are unwatchable. Anything can happen it just doesn’t usually for us Buffalo fans. Once they are down by 2 in the first 5 minutes I watch something else.