Yes, the Buffalo Sabres are improving as a hockey team despite suffering blowout losses to the Tampa Bay Lightning and the St. Louis Blues.
In their two losses over the past week, the Buffalo Sabres have been outscored 11-2. And if you’re only paying attention to the scoreboard, you may claim this team has lapsed back into their pre-March 2022 version.
But this isn’t the case. Instead, the Sabres are improving when you look at the game’s most important categories. No, statistics mean nothing at the end of a game and goals scored mean everything. To established teams.
For rebuilding franchises like the Sabres, improvements in face-offs, shots on goal, and takeaways show that this team isn’t just going out and letting opponents skate all over them. So yeah, the Sabres are still suffering blowout losses, but they’re different kinds of blowouts. Here is what they did right against the St. Louis Blues.
Buffalo Sabres suffer a blowout loss to the Blues despite a strong effort
Firstly, hats off to Owen Power, who logged his first career NHL point. Power also had three shots on goal, three takeaways, and a block. He unfortunately had one giveaway, but that’s going to happen from time to time. So, despite the loss, Power once again looked good.
The Sabres also won the face-off battle, winning 54 percent of them in tonight’s outing. They were also aggressive along the boards.
If there is one place in the game the Sabres drastically improved lately, it’s their ability to create scoring opportunities. They outshot opponents in three straight games, and it’s something they were inconsistent with for most of the season.
Yeah, the Sabres are still inconsistent with providing a physical presence, and it showed against St. Louis. They still, as a team, have a lot of work to do, as their two most recent losses have shown. But, they are also playing respectable hockey, regardless of what the scoreboard says.
There will come a time where losses of 5-0 and 6-2 become unacceptable. But for a young team with their eyes on the future, we can still find a lot of positives in blowout losses if the Sabres are making an effort. And that was the case against St. Louis.