Olympic goals from Thompson and Dahlin expose the Sabres’ real power play problem

It is no secret that the Buffalo Sabres' power play has been inconsistent at best but also downright bad at times this season. This issue has persisted now for a few seasons and the question of who is to blame, whether it is the coaches or the players. The past few games in the Olympics might have given us that answer, and the coaching staff should be taking notes.

In Team USA's first game of the Olympics, Tage Thompson was able to score a power play goal with a beautiful backhand shot that caught the goalie off guard. Thompson and Team USA would cruise to a 5-1 win in that game over Latvia.

Then on Friday, Buffalo Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin was on the ice for Team Sweden, and while they would lose 4-1 to Finland, Dahlin would score Sweden's lone goal. Once again, this was a power play goal for another Buffalo Sabres player.

Entering the Olympic break, the Buffalo Sabres ranked 16th in the league in power play percentage at 20.1%. The fact that they are as high as they are in the NHL is due in large part to their one power-play goal in each of the final six games leading into the break. This is a notable jump considering they had only 28 power play goals in the 51 games before that.

Buffalo Sabres coaches need to figure out a new plan for their power play

While the Sabres had recent success, there is enough of a sample size that this might be an exception and not the norm. Thompson and Dahlin this season have combined for only nine power play goals, and Thompson in particular has seen a notable drop off in this part of his game after 20 power play goals back in 2022-23.

On Friday, Paul Hamilton was on WGR550 and asked essentially this very question of what the Sabres, specifically Seth Appert, might take from these Olympic performances. It was interesting to see Hamilton quickly correct the hosts by saying this is Lindy Ruff's power play, so the blame might not fall entirely on Appert.

One of the big changes that the Sabres could make is playing Thompson more down on the goal line, which is where he was playing in the game against Latvia, but historically hasn't played on the Sabres power play.

It will be interesting to see if these two Sabres are able to continue to be productive on the power play, but more importantly, whether the Sabres coaching staff can take some pointers from these performances and apply them to the team's power play unit coming out of the Olympic break.