Buffalo Sabres are dealing with the same demons from 2021-22
The early stages of the regular season indicate the Buffalo Sabres are an improved hockey team. But they are still facing many familiar struggles.
In this young 2022-23 season, the Buffalo Sabres have scored seven goals and allowed five. They beat one team that gave them trouble last season and took another that absolutely destroyed them down to the wire. The Sabres are an improved bunch, and that trend should continue if they stay healthy.
Over the summer and on the eve of the regular season, they also became one of the NHL’s most stable franchises, locking in star center Tage Thompson, sledgehammer Mattias Samuelsson, coach Don Granato, and general manager Kevyn Adams. The Sabres have predictably improved on many fronts, but many familiar demons still haunt them.
The Buffalo Sabres power play remains a work in progress
The Sabres have had eight power plays, and have failed to capitalize on each of them. This is a demon that dates back to last season, where they finished with a power play percentage of 21.7%.
While they ranked in the top half of the league, it was never consistent, with the Sabres pulling off a string of games where they excelled in this department before it disappeared for stretches. The power play will eventually reach the middle ground once more this season, but its overall consistency remains another story.
Sabres struggling with shots on goal
In their loss to the Panthers, the Sabres had 27 shots on goal, 10 fewer than their Atlantic Division rival. Want more fun? Of those 27 shots, 13 occurred in the first period. They had just nine in the second, and a measly five in the third.
One reason the Sabres did not win as often last season was because they never gave themselves enough scoring opportunities. While the Sabres outshot the Senators in the final two periods on Thursday night, the first period was a different story, with Ottawa outshooting them 16-9 and gaining an early lead.
If the Sabres want to start winning games against top-tier competition, they need to put together three periods of consistent output. They haven’t done that in the season’s first two games.
Physicality
I will give the Buffalo Sabres some credit here: They got physical in Saturday’s loss to the Panthers. It was one of the chippiest games I’ve seen them play, but I also ask this question: Where was this on Thursday night and in the first period on Saturday?
Far too many times last season, the Sabres let their opponents bully them. Even when they started winning games in March and April, they were the lesser team on the ice in the physicality department.
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It was great to see them go after the Panthers, mainly in the final two periods. But the Sabres let Ottawa push them around all evening on Thursday, despite the win. And if it wasn’t for Matthew Tkachuk’s antics that finally lit a fire in the team, odds are, they would have spent another afternoon letting yet another opponent outmuscle them.
(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)