The 2022-23 Buffalo Sabres were one of those teams you would describe as good and talented, but flawed. One major good? They scored A LOT.
The 2021-22 Buffalo Sabres finished the season with 232 goals, which ranked 22nd in the league. Therefore, they gave us zero indication of what was to come in 2022-23, where they not only fell four goals shy of the 300-mark in scoring 296; they also finished third of the NHL’s 32 teams.
What’s even more interesting is the fact that as the season wore on, the more banged up the Blue and Gold got, and it affected their scoring to an extent. Had they stayed healthy, I’m probably writing an article about how the Sabres scored 300 this season.
Even more surprising? Buffalo actually led the league at varying times during the season. And remember, they did this with the league’s youngest hockey team, which isn’t something that’s supposed to happen. If the Sabres were better defensively, and I have no doubt they will be next season, and they score the way they did this year, excuse the old cliche, but the sky is the limit with this team.
Buffalo Sabres surprised the league with 296 goals
The Sabres also had four players with 30 goals or more from Tage Thompson, Jeff Skinner, Alex Tuch, and Dylan Cozens. This hasn’t happened since the team was a Stanley Cup contender back in the 2000s, and it’s already linking today’s group with the squad that made back-to-back appearances in the Eastern Conference Finals.
And if you really put things into perspective, you’ll realize how surprising this was. Tage was nothing more than an afterthought at one point in his career, and now he’s one of the league’s best.
Everyone wrote off Jeff Skinner and his “inflated” contract. But we now know Ralph Krueger was the reason behind Skinner’s struggles, not the winger, himself. He ended the year with 35 goals and 82 points.
Alex Tuch was nothing more than a winger on the middle six, and was a player who would have probably considered a 60-point season a wild success. Had he played in just one more game, he too would have eclipsed 80 points, but he still finished second on the team with 36 goals.
Finally, there is Dylan Cozens, whose goal-scoring production nose-dived in 2021-22 after he started off hot. But the Workhorse from Whitehorse lived up to his nickname when his 31-goal season showed us he was putting in a lot of work behind the scenes to become a better scorer.
And don’t be surprised if we see not only a repeat next season, but another join the club. This past year, Victor Olofsson nearly did it, but he probably won’t be here in 2023-24. Instead, I’ll go out on a limb and project Jack Quinn, whose numbers were similar to what Cozens’ were in 2021-22, takes it.
(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)