3 more improvements the Buffalo Sabres must make for Week 18
By Sion Fawkes
3 – Don’t be afraid to make the dirty goal
As you can probably guess, all three keys to winning this week are intertwined. The Buffalo Sabres need to improve their power play, and by extension, they need to take more shots on net.
I mentioned earlier that they tend to wait for the perfect play to develop, but now that opponents have a better grasp on their tendencies and style of play, those perfect lanes are harder to come by. How many times have opponents taken away the middle, for example, preventing Buffalo from getting anything going?
Sooner than later, the Sabres need to realize that if the play they’re looking for isn’t there, then they need to improvise. Is the middle taken away? Dump it and try to win the battle on the forecheck.
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Is no one open? Take a shot and see if you can get a rebound, which should often be the case if you have a teammate near the crease. The Sabres are one of the NHL’s highest-scoring teams, and they need to realize that they’re also capable of scoring non highlight-reel goals.
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