The Buffalo Sabres fared way better than their 91-point total showed us last season, and the success may have gotten to them.
The Buffalo Sabres were more than just a good team last season, despite narrowly missing the playoffs. Offensively, the Blue and Gold finished third in the league with 296 goals, and they nearly set a franchise record on the road.
Remember, this was the NHL’s youngest team last season that dominated in many facets of the game, even if they didn’t fare well defensively. With 2022-23 figuring to be a year of development and growing pains, the Sabres were the overachievers and gave everyone cheering for the Blue and Gold hope for an even better 2023-24 season.
As we now know, the Sabres are among the bottom 10 teams in the NHL, with 22 points in 26 contests. They rank just 18th in goals for with 74, or 2.84 per game, and 28th with an astounding 90 goals allowed. Last season, the Blue and Gold also won three games in a row on six occasions, further leading everyone in the NHL universe to believe this was a much better team than everyone anticipated.
Of course, other variables came into play as well, like injuries, attempts at improving defensive play even if the latter didn’t fit the team’s initial identity, and the fact that, in hindsight, the competition for starting goaltender lasting longer than it should have. But the common denominator is that a young team experienced success with fewer-than-expected growing pains, and with so much youth on the roster, it’s logical to reason that they’re experiencing adversity thanks to that success.
Buffalo Sabres may have tasted too much success before they were ready
Have you ever unexpectedly found success in any endeavor and had zero idea of how to respond or build off of it now that you had higher expectations? Then you could probably relate to what the Buffalo Sabres may be going through.
They know what success looks and feels like, but taking that next step with those heightened expectations is another story. This piece isn’t making excuses for the Sabres, but it’s providing another potential reason for why they are playing such poor hockey after 26 contests.
If this is the case, then they ultimately need to take responsibility and figure out how to bust out of this slump. One strategy? Going out and playing inspired hockey akin to what they did in the final 21 minutes vs. the Detroit Red Wings last night. Play with urgency for the here and now, with a “one game at a time” approach.
Take the big picture and break it down into smaller tasks, even if they need to narrow things to the period instead of the game, or even into each individual shift. Playoffs were the expectation this season, and it’s easy to take a step backward following unexpected success, especially if you’re constantly thinking about that heightened expectation.
So get back to the basics and worry about winning each game, being the better team during each period, and the better player in each shift. If the Buffalo Sabres can break that huge task of earning a playoff berth down into subtasks and stop worrying about the heightened overall expectation thanks to their success in 2022-23, they may start turning the corner again.
(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)