The Buffalo Sabres remain in the 2023 wild card race, and the following three players have been improving their game at the right time.
It’s March, and the Buffalo Sabres have 68 points on the season, just seven shy of what they accumulated in 2021-22. Their performance has them in the wild card race, and an overall points pace of between 91 and 92, something few saw coming this season.
And while they are still a flawed team by many accounts, mainly with consistency issues, Buffalo wouldn’t be where they are if a few players didn’t recently step up their game. Who has caught my eye recently? Here are three names.
1 – Casey Mittelstadt
This was one of those make-or-break seasons for Mittelstadt, and his 2022-23 season couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start, having committed eight giveaways in the Buffalo Sabres first three games. Mittelstadt has improved since, logging 39 points in 61 contests, good for sixth on the team.
He also has four points over the past five games. And while Mittelstadt will likely never live to his draft status, he has shown so far this season that he can provide at least serviceable, and even decent play. At worst, he’s a stopgap until the likes of Matt Savoie and Jiri Kulich join the NHL ranks.
2 – Jack Quinn
With 29 points in 54 games, Jack Quinn is on pace to finish the season with 40, but his recent play may send him north of that number. Quinn stepped up so much as of late, that head coach Don Granato trusted him to take over for Alex Tuch while the latter sits out thanks to a lower body injury.
He saw his fair share of struggles during his rookie season with the Buffalo Sabres, but he’s become far more consistent, with 9 points in his past 12 outings. If Tuch misses an extended amount of time, Quinn’s play should give fans little to worry about.
3 – J.J. Peterka
J.J. Peterka has seen more struggles than Quinn so far, but over the past week, the rookie winger has really picked things up. While his play is still far from perfect, his power play goal against the Columbus Blue Jackets helped give the Sabres a realistic chance to complete a comeback.
He nearly had a second goal on the man advantage that would have tied the game last Tuesday, but it dinged off the post. In Saturday’s win over Tampa, the same thing occurred, telling me that Peterka is starting to take more advantages of scoring opportunities.
Sure, he had a few recent mishaps where he decided to pass the puck instead of taking shots on net. But Peterka’s gotten more aggressive in the offensive zone, and it’s a trend that should continue as the Buffalo Sabres try to stick around in the wild card race.
(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)
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