Buffalo Sabres: 3 weaknesses that will become strengths in 2022

The Buffalo Sabres are a team looking up in 2022-23. And as a result, there are three major weaknesses from last season that will become strong points.

Throughout 2021-22, I talked about how the Buffalo Sabres needed to get stronger in four different areas. Those areas included shots on goal, aggression, face-offs, and special teams. When March 2022 rolled around, the Sabres slowly improved in three of the four categories.

Now that the 2022-23 NHL Season is around the corner, the Sabres can take those improvements to the next level and turn them into not just strengths, but eventually, an identity. Let’s check out these three weaknesses from 2021-22 in further detail and elaborate on how they will become strengths this year.

Three weaknesses the Buffalo Sabres will turn into strengths: Weakness #1 – Scoring

In March and April 2022, the Sabres averaged 3.14 goals per game. Do the math, and that’s 258 goals on the season over an 82-game stretch. Better health paved the way, but after spending most of the Don Granato Era playing as a unit, things finally started to click.

Enter 2022-23, where the Sabres now have just over a full season playing in Granato’s system. They have four players at forward capable of scoring at will, plus two-way defensemen in Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power who will also contribute to the goal-scoring department.

Finally, with a better and more experienced defensive rotation, look for the Sabres to possess the puck more in 2022-23, which will lead to more scoring.

Weakness #2 – Physicality

This was a department the Sabres struggled with last season. They seemingly had zero defensemen looking for contact other than perhaps Robert Hagg early on. And even Hagg’s physicality tailed off from when he was in Philadelphia.

Enter Mattias Samuelsson and Casey Fitzgerald, two prospects who immediately assumed identities as physical players. It was a jolt the Sabres needed, and I expect them both to make regular appearances for this year – Samuelsson on the first line, and Fitzgerald as possibly the extra skater in the rotation.

The Sabres also signed Ilya Lyubushkin from the Team Up North. Lyubushkin, who will enter his fifth NHL season, has also become known as a hard-hitter. Expect a much more disruptive and aggressive defensive rotation that will rack up the hits and get after the puck often in 2022-23.

Weakness #3 – Power Play/PK

Midway through last season, the Buffalo Sabres power play was abysmal. And while it never became consistent, it was yet another weaknesses they exorcised late in the season. Ditto for the PK unit.

Per The Daily Faceoff, the Sabres top projected power play unit will comprise Alex Tuch, Casey Mittelstadt, Jeff Skinner, Tage Thompson, and Rasmus Dahlin. Four of the team’s best scorers, though it wouldn’t surprise me if Victor Olofsson replaces Mittelstadt in the lineup.

As for the top PK unit, expect Zemgus Girgensons, Tuch, Power, and Henri Jokiharju to take charge. Overall, this is good news because the top units see just one new face, Power, in the lineup. And even Power isn’t entirely new given his eight games last season.

In short, with more experience on the power play and PK units and Jack Quinn serving as the only projected new face on the second units, expect better special teams this season. These three weaknesses from last season contributed to many of Buffalo’s losses, but in 2022-23, expect a few more wins given their projected improvements.