Buffalo Sabres have a plethora of issues after loss to Canucks
By Sion Fawkes
The Buffalo Sabres have now dropped six straight and there is no end in sight as their 5-4 loss felt more like a blowout than anything else.
Where do you start? Really, where do you start an article talking about this team’s mountain of issues after you watch the Buffalo Sabres play more like a low-end AHL team than anything else in a loss that shows just how many problems this team has?
Sure, they had 32 shots on goal, and that’s a positive. Jeff Skinner looked great, logging two goals. Ditto for Alex Tuch, who had three points. For Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin, scoring at least one point a night has turned into the norm.
What I’m getting at is, the Sabres have their puzzle pieces, and those puzzle pieces can produce. But it hasn’t made them immune to just about every issue in the book.
The Buffalo Sabres have problems all over the ice
The Sabres actually had the puck in the offensive zone longer than I initially thought. Why was that? Because they couldn’t get the puck a teammate every time I turned around. It seemed like every time a Sabres player connected with another, they missed on two subsequent passes. The overall dysfunction in the offensive zone gave the Canucks chances.
And so did the Sabres lack of efficacy on special teams. While the official stat line says the Canucks finished two for three on the power play, they were essentially three for three, as one score occurred a mere seconds following the Sabres only successful penalty kill of the night. In November, the PK unit sits at just 60%, per the Sabres broadcast, in case you were wondering.
Once again, the Sabres were outmuscled, having logged just five measly hits. They couldn’t win faceoffs (again). They struggled on the power play (again). And all of the sheer dysfunction culminated in what is now their sixth-straight loss.
So I’ll ask the question again: Where do you start to fix this thing? Anybody got a clue? If I’m Don Granato, I’m taking one issue at a time. Start with the most pressing, perhaps? For me, that would be making sure that, in the offensive zone, that the Sabres can simply pass the puck to one another to keep plays alive.
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In other words, I’m getting back to the basics, and maybe that will translate into a few more goals. Then I’ll deal with the more complex issues. But this team can’t fully function unless they manage to execute basic plays.
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