With just 72 points, the Buffalo Sabres playoff hopes are basically gone at this point. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be reasons to watch.
Many fans want to see the Buffalo Sabres play newly-signed goaltender Devon Levi. I’m leery of this, given of how bad the Blue and Gold have played defensively. But I’ll also concede that a) I’m probably in the unpopular opinion camp here, and b) he’s going to play, whether I like it or not.
So since Levi is going to get some games, the least our Sabres can do is to put him into the best position to win. Or at least in the best position to not face a half-dozen breakaways and open shot attempts. With that said, I outlined three more areas the Sabres need to improve over these last 14 contests.
What do we want to see from the Buffalo Sabres?
1 – Better penalty kill
This is basically another one of those ‘needs improvement‘ articles I’ve been writing lately, and the penalty kill has been on most of them. And while the Buffalo Sabres have improved their game in many facets, the PK unit has regressed to historically bad levels.
It sits at 31st in the league, and yes, it is the worst in the East by 0.5%, with the Montreal Canadiens taking second-to-last honors. With Levi now wearing a blue and gold uniform, it’s more pertinent now more than ever to at least put yourself in better positioning to kill off opposing power plays.
2 – Better forecheck
Something I’ve noticed but haven’t touched on is that the Sabres lack of forecheck hurts. Buffalo is a fast, high-octane team that loves driving the puck up the middle of the ice to generate scoring chances. This is something we have seen a lot of this season and in many cases, it works.
Problem is, when opponents take away the middle of the ice and the neutral zone, as has been the case lately, they tank offensively. Establishing a better forecheck would give the Sabres a chance at creating something offensively when opponents take away their favorite lanes.
At this point, and Rob Ray noticed it last night against Philadelphia, the Sabres aren’t getting guys deep enough to give themselves a chance of winning consistent puck battles along the boards. As it stands, when the Sabres dump, they’re basically giving the puck back to opponents.
3 – Better decision-making from Don Granato
If you’re going to play Devon Levi for a couple of these final 14 contests, you need to play forwards who can provide better defense. This means not sitting Tyson Jost and playing Victor Olofsson unless you want Levi to face a few more breakaways.
And while J.J. Peterka can stand to improve his defense, he’s also been on the ice for a number of high-danger chances lately, meaning Buffalo is more likely to score and provide a greater margin of error for Levi. Granato needs to play Jost and Peterka, while benching Hinostroza – has he’d done earlier in year, and keeping Olofsson off the ice until he does something other than scoring garbage-time goals.
(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)