Biggest surprises for the Sabres through the first month of the season

The Buffalo Sabres are once again struggling as we near the end of October, but it doesn’t mean there hasn’t been at least one pleasant surprise. Yesterday, I talked about how Tage Thompson is looking like himself again and could be in line to at least contend for a top-10 finish for the Hart Trophy if he stays consistent. 

But Tage hasn’t been the only awesome surprise so far for the Sabres in the first month of what we’re hoping will be a better season than last year. So, let’s talk about the good before we start to unfortunately focus on the bad, starting with one player who I wasn’t happy to see Buffalo acquire. 

Yep, Jason Zucker has surprised me, ending the month with seven points and two goals in 10 games, good for a 16.7 shooting percentage. He’s doing all of this with just 15:17 of average total ice time, and there’s a reason to believe Zucker is just now getting into the groove. 

Owen Power is one of a few players to watch for November, and with eight points and two goals in 10 games, it looks like 2024-25 will be his breakout campaign. He received a lot of scrutiny last season after it looked like he was, at best, stagnating, but that shouldn’t be the case now. 

Buffalo Sabres have seen a few good surprises but also some bad ones

Finally, the Sabres ability to find the net often his month was jaw-dropping after a pedestrian first three games. Yeah, their recent loss to the Florida Panthers saw them score just twice, but ranking 13th in the league with 32 goals scored before Wednesday night’s slate of games isn’t too bad, considering the way things started out. 

Unfortunately, it hasn’t been all good for the Sabres, evidenced by their 4-5-1 record in October. Zach Benson was the biggest unpleasant surprise so far. Now on injured reserve for the foreseeable future, Benson looked like he was finding his game late last year, only to put forth exactly zero points and a minus-4 in his first six games. 

Benson was one player I’d like to see reassigned and forgotten about for the time being, but Jack Quinn hasn’t fared much better. Yeah, I’d rather see Quinn stick around and find his game like he did during his limited appearances last season, but wow, two points, one goal, and a minus-4 in nine games was the last thing fans thought they’d get from Quinn. 

And, finally, the goaltending has been so-so lately. While it’s true Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Devon Levi made the best out of bad situations at times this month, an overall 0.886 save percentage, 3.45 GAA, and 0.500 quality starts percentage won’t cut it. 

Even if those numbers aren’t entirely on them, they’re still signs that the duo must step it up if the Sabres want to stay relevant. Thankfully, they’re playing in a tightly contested Atlantic Division, so there’s still time to get and remain consistent in the net.