The past seven days were busy for the Buffalo Sabres. The team played four games between Tuesday, October 27 and Sunday, November 1. Though the team has struggled somewhat this season so far, the Sabres had an overall solid week, picking up six of a possible eight points.
Over the past week, the Buffalo Sabres faced the Philadelphia Flyers (twice), the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Islanders. Three of four games were on the road.
In those four games, the Buffalo Sabres outscored their opponents 12-9 and outshot their opponents 151-120. Eighteen different players registered at least a point over the course of the past week, with ten of those players registering multiple points.
The week kicked off with the Sabres pulling off a 4-3 overtime victory over the Flyers on Tuesday. They then faced a tough challenge against the Penguins on Thursday in Dan Bylsma‘s return to his former city, and ultimately fell 4-3 despite managing to (mostly) keep up with the red-hot Pens.
The Sabres came back the next day to capture a 3-1 win over the Flyers – this time at home – on Friday night. Finally, they closed out the week with a rare Sunday night game at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, grabbing a 2-1 win over the New York Islanders.
Who were some of the best players this week for the Buffalo Sabres?
First and foremost, you can’t talk about this week without talking about Buffalo Sabres forward Ryan O’Reilly.
O’Reilly had points in three of four games, registering one goal and five assists. That included three points in the Sabres’ 3-1 win over the Flyers. He leads the Buffalo Sabres now with 13 points in 12 games — including the six points in three games over the past week.
He also played over 20 minutes in each of the four games over the course of the last week, including a season-high 26:03 in Friday’s win. He ended the week as a plus-3, and his five-game point streak ended on November 1 when he failed to register a point in the win over the Islanders.
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You’d also be hard-pressed to talk about this week without discussing Jamie McGinn, who had three points in four games.
McGinn notched goals in the overtime win over Philadelphia and the loss to the Pens; he also had an assist in Sunday’s win over the Islanders. Overall, he’s got five points in 12 games this season, tied for third on the team in that category.
Finally, how about those goaltenders? Chad Johnson stopped 55 of 62 shots faced in the first two games of the week. Linus Ullmark – still a relatively inexperienced NHL goaltender, still getting his feet wet – stopped 56 of 58 shots faced in the capstone pair of games. Though goaltending is still arguably one of the weaker points for the Buffalo Sabres, these are pretty good signs that things are looking up.
Next: Ristolainen Emerging Among Sabres Defense
The coming week is significantly calmer for the Buffalo Sabres. They’ll host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, then host the Vancouver Canucks for a matinee game on Saturday (1 pm).