Buffalo Sabres: The good, the bad, and the ugly from Week 8 in 2023-24
The Buffalo Sabres have looked like a completely different hockey team since their big win on Monday night that now seems like ages ago.
Technically, we still have one game to go in Week 8 of the Buffalo Sabres 2023-24 season, as they return home to face the Nashville Predators tonight. But it’s been such a turbulent week, that it made sense to talk about what the Blue and Gold did so well this past Monday, and what has gone wrong since.
If you wanted a recap on what was the team’s worst performance recently, check out the piece from last night’s loss and it will tell you that, if the Sabres want to start winning again, they need to start playing hockey more identically to their opponent’s style, and less like their own.
It was a matchup where each player on the Carolina Hurricanes knew what to do when they had the puck, and where to go when they didn’t have possession. But the Sabres ironically enough know how to play such sound hockey, and they showed that on Monday night.
The good, bad, and ugly from the Buffalo Sabres in Week 8 of 2023
The good
If it wasn’t for a power play goal thanks to a bad cross-checking call on Zach Benson, the Sabres would have shut out the New York Rangers. The Blue and Gold showed us in that first game of Week 8 that they knew how to close off passing and shooting lanes, and they did it with ease.
They also shot the puck often, and created scoring chances by playing fast, north-south hockey in all three periods. It was a textbook game defensively and what we thought was a statement win and momentum builder heading into the rest of the week.
The bad
The Buffalo Sabres have developed a horrible habit of allowing quick goals this season, and it happened again against the St. Louis Blues. The clear upside was that the Sabres once again logged an incredible number of shots on goal (46) and it at least looked like that high-octane offense was still there, as they put up four goals in the contest, including three unanswered.
But they also allowed the first two goals of the night in a span of five minutes and two seconds into the game, before they gave up two more within 24 seconds just over two minutes after tying the game. Defensive breakdowns that have led to multiple goals allowed in short spans have affected this team in a bad way, but it wasn’t the ugliest thing that happened this week.
The ugly
There was nothing worse in Week 8 for the Buffalo Sabres than their deteriorating play with essentially the same players on the ice sans those rotating in and out via healthy scratches. They were stellar on Monday night, and they even gave us hope on Thursday night thanks to showing the ability to climb out of a 3-0 deficit.
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Last night, there was hardly anything good to take away because of the numerous defensive breakdowns and inability to get an adequate number of shots off. The upside is that they can at least pull within one game of 0.500 (again) and end the week on a high note, but few of us are expecting anything to change because the Sabres have given no reason for the fans to believe in them.
(Statistics and information provided by NHL.com)