The Buffalo Sabres have been abysmal defensively at many points this season, but lately, they have played respectable hockey. Will they build on it?
In their Friday night win over the New Jersey Devils, the Buffalo Sabres showed signs of life defensively. Sure, they allowed four goals and finished five checks, none of which are respectable. But they still applied pressure, often took away the Devils favorite shooting lanes, got sticks on the puck when New Jersey had good looks, and applied timely backchecking.
The effort allowed the Blue and Gold to sneak away with the win. But facing a back-to-back, and about 19 hours worth of rest, few thought the Sabres would have anything close to a repeat performance against the New York Islanders, a team whose forecheck the Sabres couldn’t stop when the teams met earlier in the month.
So forgive me when I predicted a rather easy win for the likely playoff bound Isles. Then, the unthinkable happened. The Sabres didn’t just beat the Islanders, they shut them out with Eric Comrie of all goaltenders in the net.
Buffalo Sabres have shown up defensively. Will it continue?
Here’s a fun takeaway from last night’s win: The Sabres didn’t give up a single high-danger chance at 5-on-5 not with Owen Power or Rasmus Dahlin, but with Jacob Bryson and Riley Stillman on the ice. With the defense’s improvement, it’s easy to think players like Power, Dahlin, or even Henri Jokiharju and Ilya Lyubushkin would be primarily responsible, not Bryson and Stillman.
But it also means the Sabres Top Four played lights out, and that was the case against the Isles. Dahlin and Power led the way with 27:03 and 25:52 of ice time, respectively, while Jokiharju and Lyubushkin were pivotal pieces in the penalty kill, which has now killed off 7 of the last 8 penalties.
So will this sound defensive play continue? It should, as the Sabres will face off against the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night. With 211 goals scored, Montreal is currently 24th in the league in the category. Let’s see if the Sabres can take advantage of an easier opponent before they square off against the New York Rangers on Friday.
Source: Observations: Patience pays off for Sabres with Kyle Okposo’s game-winner vs. Isles by Lance Lysowski, BuffaloNews.com
(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)