Buffalo Sabres: 3 major takeaways from Week 7 of 2023-24

The Buffalo Sabres gave us a solid mixture of good, bad, and ugly following Week 7 of their still-stagnating 2023-24 season.

The Buffalo Sabres had a rough week, even if they managed three out of six possible points. The loss to the Washington Capitals is one that never should have happened if the Blue and Gold learned how to close games, but that may be the start of the woes we saw in Week 7.

Head coach Don Granato has not been managing lineups or the game well. And the team also found a way to dig itself into yet another hole in the early going of their road game against the New Jersey Devils.

3 major takeaways for the Buffalo Sabres in Week 7

1 – The Sabres in-game management has been awful

Okay, rolling with the 11/7 mentality has rarely worked, and when it has, the margin of victory has been slim. But it gets worse than that, given the questionable amount of ice time head coach Don Granato has been giving his players.

You can’t play your top-six forwards under 16 minutes per game and your bottom-six for up to 15 minutes and expect to win. That’s what we saw from Granato this week, and so far, it’s been an awful decision on his part.

Source: Sabres’ Woes a Result of Don Granato’s Poor Decision Making by Jacob D. Strozyk, The Hockey Writers

2 – Early-game woes persist and show zero signs of ending

We’ve seen it happen far too often this season, and it foreshadowed what we should have known was coming in the Buffalo Sabres loss to the Devils. When the Blue and Gold allow early goals and are forced to play from behind, it’s almost like panic mode sets in, and as we saw on Saturday, it led to a 7-2 loss.

The Sabres can learn from this by setting an early tone, especially when they play tough teams like the New York Rangers. To their credit, they turned things around against Pittsburgh and won, but every team gets things to go their way late every once in a while.

3 – Sabres still can’t figure out how to close games

Clearly, when the Sabres are playing 5-on-6, they are awful, and we saw it in three of their last four games, dating back to the double-doinker against the Chicago Blackhawks that nearly sent the game into overtime. Against the Washington Capitals, it happened, and it cost the Sabres a point when they could have closed out the game.

But it goes beyond just closing games, given the way they gave up a goal at 5-on-6 this past Saturday night against the New Jersey Devils. Overall, it’s something the team must get better at, or else they can expect to lose a few more heartbreakers this year.

Source: OPINION: With quarter of Sabres’ season gone, it’s time to start walking the walk by Paul Hamilton, Audacy.com