The Buffalo Sabres had yet another October to remember in more than just the W’s and L’s column. Check out these following statistics.
Rasmus Dahlin had arguably the most mind-blowing month for a defenseman to start off an NHL season. In the first five games, the Buffalo Sabres star player scored one goal per contest, and tacked on his sixth goal in Halloween Night’s 8-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings.
Dahlin’s six goals in nine games is tied for first in the NHL with San Jose’s Erik Karlsson. However, we can hand the Sabres star the tiebreaker given his 12 points to Karlsson’s 11.
And Dahlin isn’t the only Sabre whose statistics made headlines. Check out these three mind-boggling stats from the month of October.
1 – Tage’s 9 points in two games bested Perreault, Mogilny, LaFontaine
Just to be mentioned in the same breath as Buffalo Sabres great Gilbert Perreault is an honor. But to accomplish something the greatest skater in team history never did? That’s special, and Tage Thompson did just that when he logged nine points over two games.
And as you can see in the Tweet below, Pat LaFontaine and Alexander Mogilny, who logged two of the best scoring seasons in franchise history, couldn’t even pull off that feat. While the jury remains out of whether Tage will find a place among them when it is all said and done, he is well on his way.
Tage Thompson has nine points in two games. LaFontaine and Mogilny didn’t do that in ‘92-93. Both had 8 in two games. Same for Perreault in his 113-point ‘75-76 season. Will need @SabresPR to tell us if nine is a record.
— Mike Harrington (@ByMHarrington) November 1, 2022
2 – Buffalo Sabres 37 goals scored ranked third in the NHL
Only the Los Angeles Kings (41 goals) and the Boston Bruins (39) rank higher than the Sabres. And while the Blue and Gold had their downers that included one measly goal against the Seattle Kraken and just two despite 40-plus SOG against the Chicago Blackhawks, the Sabres, for the most part, were a goal-scoring machine.
We saw them show flashes of this toward the end of last season, when they scored 3.14 goals per game. But in October, that 3.14 per turned into 4.1. Not a half-bad increase for a team that was supposed to struggle out of the gate. And speaking of which…
3 – Buffalo Sabres improved to 47 points in last three months (37 games)
This Sabres team was remarkable in March and April 2022, even if the mainstream NHL media wanted to pretend it never happened given their predictions for the Sabres. Well, at least for a month, the Sabres are laughing at the doubters and haters, and in their last 37 games as a unit, this team has 47 points.
Stretch that over an 82-game season, and you get 104 points. If the Sabres keep this up, then playoff contention is not out of the question. But in the rough, tough Eastern Conference, I am projecting early that, like last season, even the wild card teams will need at least 100 points. The Sabres, however, are slowly proving that they can reach that mark.
(Statistics provided by Quant Hockey)
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