3 reasons the Buffalo Sabres are a better team (and 3 reasons they aren’t)
The Buffalo Sabres bounced back from a road-trip opening loss to the Edmonton Oilers and stole two games in overtime
The Buffalo Sabres have at times looked like a different hockey team in March 2022. They won six games in a month for the first time this season and it took them just 20 days in March to complete the feat.
They won as many games in March as they did in January and February combined, where they posted a 6-13-3 record. The Sabres also bested their November-December record of 5-15-4. So overall, this team has shown immense improvement in March, right?
You can say so, but the Sabres still have their quirks. And while they have made every single win in March memorable ones, their losses should remind us this team is not out of the doldrums yet. In their three losses between March 2nd and March 20th, opponents outscored the Sabres 15-2.
So has this hockey team gotten better or have they stayed even-keel and gotten lucky? Here are three reasons supporting each argument.
They’re beating playoff contenders
Each game the Sabres have played in this month came against potential playoff teams. And with just 52 points, the Sabres are all but out of the running. But that hasn’t stopped them from pulling off upsets against the likes of the Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Vegas Golden Knights.
In fact, their tilts against the Maple Leafs weren’t even close, with the Sabres outscoring their division rivals 10-3. And while the win over Vegas was impressive (and satisfying), their two best wins came in the shutout over the Flames and their overtime win over the Vancouver Canucks.
Why? Because these were the games the Sabres had a hard time winning earlier in the year, posting a 3-8 record in overtime between October and February. In March, they’re a perfect 2-0. Not only are wins against playoff contenders evidence the team’s arrow points north, but their ability to win in overtime shows further improvement.
Teams still beat them handedly
Even the best teams will suffer the occasional blowout. Unfortunately for the Sabres, it’s happened twice this month and you can argue the three-goal loss to the Los Angeles Kings also qualifies as a blowout. Go back to February and you can further argue most of their losses was flat out bad hockey.
In their losses to the Kings, Florida Panthers, and Edmonton Oilers, the Sabres scored just two goals while allowing 15. It was a recurring theme that plagued the team since the second half of February, and it’s easy to point out several instances before they ended the month with an 0-6 record.
The Sabres need to find ways to limit blowout losses. And they also need to find ways to keep opponents, as was the case of Florida and Edmonton, from jumping out to big leads before putting games in cruise control.
Scoring diversity
In February, it was mainly the Skinner-Tuch-Thompson show. In March, it was a different story. And while the trio had a good night in Vancouver, it served as an outlier in recent games.
Skinner had gone six games without a point, while Thompson embarked on a pointless streak in four out of five contests between the Kings and Oilers meetings.
Tuch logged just one point between tilts with the Minnesota Wild and the Calgary Flames. His only point in that stretch? An empty-netter against Vegas.
So the trio cooled down while others stepped up recently. Casey Mittelstadt and Peyton Krebs have had some memorable hockey nights. As have Victor Olofsson and Rasmus Dahlin.
The recent diverse scoring shows the Sabres don’t always need to rely on Tuch, Skinner, and Thompson to create opportunities. And in the long-run, a diverse scoring effort will organically lead to more wins.
Sabres remain inconsistent offensively
The Sabres scored just five goals on their three-game road trip. And while they posted a shutout and overall stellar goaltending against Calgary and Vancouver, the Oilers scored more in one game than the Sabres did in three.
However, the Sabres also found twine at least five times in three games between March 2nd and March 21st. So they’ve proven they can score at will. But with just five goals over three games, three of which occurred in regulation, it shows the Sabres still have a long way to go offensively.
No, they won’t score five goals every night even when they start winning consistently. But the Sabres need to find ways to stop being so streaky in their goal-scoring efforts. If it continues, don’t expect them to play good enough to take many games into, and win, in overtime. They proved otherwise too many times this season.
Health
Injuries and bouts with COVID-19 decimated the Sabres roster earlier in the year to the point they employed regular taxi squads just to ensure they had enough players on the roster. The result? A disastrous December through February.
Now healthy, with defensemen Colin Miller and Will Butcher returning, the Sabres have shown that improved health naturally means an improved product on the ice. It’s no coincidence a healthier Buffalo Sabres team has translated to a 6-3 record from March 2nd to March 21st.
Although a healthy Sabres team doesn’t rank among the NHL’s best, they have shown to at least rank in the middle of the pack in this 32-team league. Injuries will still occur; they’re part of the game. So the team’s next mission is to adopt that “next man up” mentality to ensure injuries won’t derail future seasons. And that comes with them building solid depth across the organization.
Regressed power play
The Sabres struggled with the power play and penalty kill all season. And in March, things initially began turning the corner. But, it’s been classic fool’s gold from the Sabres. Since the Vegas tilt, the Sabres are 1 for 14 on the power play, a conversion rate of 7.1%.
While their penalty kill (12 for 14; 85.7%) improved in that five-game stretch, the Sabres struggled enough to find twine during their March 17th to 20th road trip to waste power play opportunities. Their failure to convert didn’t always put them behind the eight-ball, hence their 2-1 record in that timespan. But it will cost them should an opponent put up a high-scoring effort.
The Sabres desperately need to fix their power play woes if they want to build upon their improved outing in March. Until then, the Sabres won’t shake off all the blowout losses. And when they do win, chances are they will find themselves playing an extra period.
(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)