Sabres: Casey Mittelstadt had a near-miss is one you must see to believe

Buffalo Sabres center Casey Mittelstadt has been one of the Blue and Gold’s most effective players in 2023-24, but he came up short last night.

The Buffalo Sabres had plenty of opportunities to get the best of the St. Louis Blues in last night’s loss. However, they came up empty-handed in many of their astounding 46 shots on goal. But none was more frustrating than what Casey Mittelstadt missed when he had an open look on Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington.

During the play, Alex Tuch found Jeff Skinner, who subsequently passed to Mittelstadt. Mittelstadt passed the puck back to Skinner, who skated down the right-wing circle, and passed between a pair of Blues players. This gave Mittelstadt a wide-open shot, and it looked like a goal was imminent.

But that was not to be, as the smallest of deflections kept Mittelstadt from cleanly handling the puck. It ended up hitting the side of the net, and when Mittelstadt tried to keep the play alive, St. Louis had taken away the shooting lanes.

Casey Mittelstadt nearly scored his fifth of the season, only to be denied

Had Mittelstadt scored, it would have been his fifth goal of the year and 21st point in 23 contests. Since struggling early in his career with the Buffalo Sabres, Mittelstadt has been arguably their most consistent and effective player with the puck. And had the pass gotten to him a little cleaner, we may be having a different conversation about last night’s game.

It was a letdown, but you still must credit Mittelstadt for finding Skinner and getting himself in position to make a potential highlight-reel play. Overall, highlight-reel plays have been something we have seen often from the 25-year-old over the past calendar year. And despite the Sabres inconsistencies, you can always count on Mittelstadt to put himself and others in a position to make something happen.

(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)