Buffalo Sabres: 3 takeaways from Friday’s 2-1 loss to the Capitals
The Buffalo Sabres played their second game of a 56-game 2021 season last night, Jan. 15. Once again, Buffalo faced the Washington Capitals and once again they lost in regulation.
However, this loss wasn’t like the first one on Thursday. The Sabres actually played well this game and arguably outplayed the Capitals as they outshot them 31-21, won 52% of the faceoffs and had zero penalties.
The only things standing in the way of the Sabres winning this game were rookie goaltender Vitek Vanecek, who saved 30 of 31 shots, and themselves as they were unable to take advantage of five powerplay opportunities.
The Sabres will be facing an arguably more difficult matchup in their next game on Monday in the Philadelphia Flyers. For them to be competitive and have a chance at being the victors in this game, a few things much change from what happened last night.
3. Tage Thompson should not be playing on the Buffalo Sabres’ first line.
Throughout training camp and the first two games, right wing Tage Thompson has been playing on Buffalo’s first line with Taylor Hall and Jack Eichel.
While Thompson had a strong camp playing on this line, he hasn’t been very effective or noticeable through the first two regular-season games. Yes, he has an assist, but other than that he’s done nothing.
Thompson may be the biggest player on the team at 6-foot-5 and 205 pounds, but he plays like he’s 5-foot-5 and 155 pounds as he tries to dangle and finesse his way around the defense instead of using his size to get pucks out of the corners and get to the front of the net for rebounds and deflections.
Hall and Eichel already dangle enough, that line doesn’t need another player like this. Instead, this line needs a player that will go to the front of the net. We saw who this player was in the third period when Sam Reinhart replaced Thompson on the line.
Reinhart isn’t afraid to go to the dirty areas, and he was a big reason why the Sabres scored their only goal as he tied up with Tom Wilson in front of the Caps’ net screening Vanecek.
In the one period Reinhart was on the first line, he made a greater impact than Thompson did in five periods.
2. Jeff Skinner needs to play in the Buffalo Sabres’ top-six forward group.
It’s clear that coach Ralph Krueger isn’t too fond of left wing Jeff Skinner. Skinner is being paid $9 million but playing on the fourth line because of his defensive issues.
Skinner is being paid to score, not to play defense. Playing him in the bottom-six — which are forwards who are there to wear down the opposition and play a defense-first style — makes no sense.
Krueger needs to put his ego aside and admit he was wrong and do what’s best for the team, which is clearly putting Skinner back in the top-six forward group.
Skinner was one of the best players on the ice for Buffalo last night, yet he didn’t get promoted in the lineup until Hall had to go to the locker room in the third period to get some stitches after getting a puck to the mouth.
Last night Skinner played just under 14-and-a-half minutes, and in the first game he played just over this mark. This is unacceptable that one of your highest-paid and obviously most skilled forward is playing under 18 minutes a game.
Skinner may have had a down year last season, but down years have happened throughout his career. If given the opportunity, he’ll most likely have a much better season this year. This is proven by his career stats.
1. The Buffalo Sabres need to take advantage of powerplay opportunities.
In their first game of the season, the Sabres scored once on three powerplay opportunities. Last night, Buffalo was awarded five powerplays and scored on none of them.
Scoring zero times over five powerplays is just unacceptable, especially with the talent the team has on both units. To make it worse, the Sabres didn’t look very good on the powerplay as they weren’t able to create many opportunities.
This cannot continue against the Flyers on Monday or against any team Buffalo plays this season. Having a good powerplay can change the outcome of a game and either lead to a win or a loss.
Scoring on a powerplay or even just generating good chances can create momentum for your team and lead to more goals. However, if your powerplay can’t generate chances and the opposition easily kills it they’ll generate momentum leading to goals against.
With the Sabres being weak defensively and in net, their powerplay is more important to them than most teams as they aren’t as strong at five-on-five play.
Next. Three Sabres “hot takes” for the 2021 NHL season. dark
It’s clear as day that the Sabres need to fix the issues they had on the powerplay last night for their next game against the Flyers. If they don’t, we could be in for a long game.