How the Buffalo Sabres came to life offensively against the Isles
By Sion Fawkes
The Buffalo Sabres may have only scored two goals in regulation, but they came to life offensively against the Islanders.
The Buffalo Sabres won on Ryan Miller Night in a 3-2 overtime thriller. And while they only scored two in regulation, the Sabres also faced one of the best goaltenders out there in Ilya Sorokin.
So far this season, Sorokin has a 0.926 save percentage, and a 2.32 GAA, indicating the best way to score on the netminder is to either fool or wear him down. Therefore, the Sabres couldn’t afford to look like that slow, gassed, and out of sync team we’ve seen over the past two weeks.
Luckily, that wasn’t the case, as the Sabres, who constantly found themselves in the offensive zone over the game’s first two periods, generated a lot of speed. It resulted in the Blue and Gold outshooting the Islanders 31-16 in those frames.
Buffalo Sabres looked alive offensively against New York
Had the Sabres faced an average to above-average goaltender, you probably would have seen a game where they scored five-plus. But either way you look at it, Buffalo came into this game knowing the Islanders were a tough team defensively, having given up just 2.78 goals per game entering the contest.
They were a bigger, more physical team that loved to hit. So the Sabres countered by rediscovering what it is they do best: Beat opponents with sound speed and puck movement. Since last Monday’s loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, we have seen, at best, a stagnant hockey team, so it was refreshing to see Buffalo respond so well to the hard-nosed Islanders.
After their big win against the Nashville Predators on Saturday, I openly wondered whether the Sabres could regain consistency in the offensive zone. Turns out, they couldn’t, as they looked flat in losses to the Florida Panthers and Chicago Blackhawks.
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Now that they regained their footing at least for a game against New York, the Sabres once again have a chance to find consistency offensively with a weak Anaheim Ducks squad coming to town. We will find out in 24 hours if that will be the case.
(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)
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