Going into the season, the Buffalo Sabres blue line was the biggest question mark. But that hasn’t been the case in the early going of 2023-24.
With the Buffalo Sabres getting their first win of the season last night, I thought I would give some love. Usually when I do this, I talk about a player or a couple of players. In this article, I thought I would show some love to the blue line.
There was no secret that the Sabres defense was going to be the biggest question mark going into the 2023-24 season. No one is really talking about it but Buffalo’s defense was good last night. Aside from the Lightning’s second goal with seven seconds left in the game, they did a good job.
After a rough game against the New York Rangers on opening night, they held the New York Islanders and Tampa Bay to under 30 shots apiece. Going back to last season, there would be so many games where they let the opposing team get at least 40 shots on goal.
Even Devon Levi showed some love to his blue line. Last night during the postgame press conference, Levi gave some credit where it was due. He said:
"“Wow, this is really easy. I need to play for them.”"
Source: NHL.com
Now they have not been perfect but they have been doing a solid job. It didn’t help that Mattias Samuelsson went down with an injury in the third period but I need to give them credit where it’s due because they did play pretty well.
Like I just mentioned, they have not been spectacular but it was very encouraging to see them not giving up so many shots like opening night. There is still some work to do but after what I saw being at the game last night, I thought I would give them some love. We will see how they do as Buffalo takes on the Calgary Flames tomorrow night.